Gravity Freeze is the sixth studio album by London-based trio Little Barrie — comprising singer and guitarist Barrie Cadogan, bassist Lewis Wharton, and drummer Tony Coote — released on 22 May 2026 via Easy Eye Sound, a Concord Label Group release. It is the band's first album credited solely under the Little Barrie name since Death Express (2017) and the death of drummer Virgil Howe, who suffered a fatal heart attack in September 2017 after a decade with the band. Following Howe's passing, Cadogan and Wharton regrouped through a series of collaborative albums with Malcolm Catto before gradually shaping new Little Barrie material, with songs taking form in a makeshift Dalston rehearsal space before being fully realised at Rat Salad Studios in London with co-producer and engineer Rupert Lyddon — a collaborator Cadogan had previously worked with on film and documentary projects including Baz Luhrmann's Elvis and Scott Derrickson's The Black Phone. The nine-track album was mastered by Tom Forrest and also marks over 25 years since the band's first singles on Stark Reality, and approximately 20 years since their debut album We Are Little Barrie, produced by Edwyn Collins.Conceived and sequenced with vinyl in mind, Gravity Freeze was recorded simultaneously with Cadogan's concurrent solo project Electric War, with songs sorted between the two based on temperament — the Little Barrie material taking a more song-based approach rooted in rhythm and blues, while the solo record leaned more experimental. The album's title track draws on Cadogan's experience of sleep paralysis: "that moment where you've woken up and you're still dreaming," he explained in press materials. Standout tracks include opener "More Bad Miles Of Road," whose winding guitar work draws comparisons to 1950s pioneer Duane Eddy; the seven-minute "Luggin' Hurt," featuring backing vocalists Holly Quin-Ankrah and Frida Touray, which Song Bar described as having "such infectious energy and riffing power, it's simply impossible not to tap your feet"; and the slower "December" and the chugging "Wire." The same review praised the album as offering "timeless sounds and super tight musicianship," while Kristan Reed called it "the first time they've weighted the ingredients more equally" across blues, funk, and soul, resulting in a set that "fully represents everything they stand for all at once."
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