You Me At Six delay new album release due to vinyl production troubles

The five-piece rock outfit had been set to drop their eighth studio album on 27 January, but have now pushed it back to 10 February on account of “a pain,” they say, “that continues to affect many artists and labels”.

“We hope that you’re able to wait a couple of extra weeks,” the band said in a post shared to their social media.

Truth Decay is the follow-up to 2021’s Suckapunch – an album which scored the band their second Number 1 album of their career, and their sixth consecutive Top 10.

⚠️ TRUTH DECAY 10TH FEB pic.twitter.com/mx7vy3M9Pc

— You Me At Six (@youmeatsix) January 11, 2023

As You Me At Six note in their reasoning for the album’s delay, issues around vinyl production have been brewing for a number of years now, to some extent making the format a victim of its own success. As a result of its resurgence, the demand for PVC – polyvinyl chloride, the substance from which vinyl records are made – has increased, as supply chains have been stressed.

This week, new figures showed that vinyl had outsold CDs for the first time in 35 years, with the popularity of the medium having grown by 11% on the previous year.

Production had even been an issue the year prior, with some pointing fingers at Adele for having 500,000 vinyl records pressed for her 2021 album 30. Yet the problems, of course, ran a lot deeper than that, with some estimates suggesting the world’s capacity for pressing vinyl records – among the roughly hundred vinyl pressing plants around the world – is around 160 million records annually.

The problem, as You Me At Six’s situation has highlighted, is that the sheer amount of demand outweighs the supply by more than double.

Nonetheless, as the band have said, “We hope that you’re able to wait a couple of extra weeks”. And those extra few weeks seem a small price to pay, especially in comparison to smaller artists with less clout when it comes to having vinyls pressed for their records.

Truth Decay’s release date will now take place when its creators are nearing the end of their tour, where they’ve promised to make it up to their fans for the album’s delay. The full dates of said tour are below.

FEBRUARY

1^st – Pavilions, Plymouth

3^rd – Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow

6^th – O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester

9^th – Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham

10^th – Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff

11^th – Alexandra Palace, London