Anna Meredith has a new album. Darling, out on Friday 12 February 2027 via Mercury KX, is the composer's first non-soundtrack album since 2021, and she is pitching it as a record of intensity, energy and euphoria.

The announcement, reported by Pitchfork on 6 October 2026, came with a first single, "Dusky", and a music video built from surreal stop-motion visuals. It is available to watch and stream now.

What we know about Darling

Darling has 11 tracks. The tracklist, as published by Pitchfork, is:

Dusky

Mode Mouse

Last Words

Cry Baby

Lye

Underling

Mink

Rites

Aphid

3019

Peach

The titles are typically Meredith: short, slightly odd, often animal or bodily — "Aphid", "Mink", "Mode Mouse", "Lye". "3019" hints at something science-fictional. Beyond the tracklist and the first single, details of the album's sound, collaborators and live plans have not yet been published in the announcement.

Her own words

Meredith set out the album's intent in a press statement quoted by Pitchfork. "'DARLING' is a channelling of intensity, energy and euphoria," she said. "This is me making music to summon motion, tension, and release, to push through my brain and my body at a time when my own world (and the world in general) feels overwhelming."

She described wanting "to lean into a technicolor version of what my music can be, reaching for higher highs and greater twists and turns, and letting it sit with more confidence than ever before."

That framing will be familiar to anyone who has heard her live. Meredith's music tends to build from tight, repeating cells into something closer to a rush — closer to a club drop than a concert-hall crescendo, even when it is played on cello, tuba and drums.

Where Darling sits in her catalogue

The headline needs a little unpacking, because Meredith has been busy.

Her last two non-soundtrack albums were Fibs, released in 2019, and Bumps Per Minute: 18 Studies for Dodgems, released in 2021. Some coverage has billed Darling as her first album in seven years, counting back to Fibs. Strictly, Bumps Per Minute came in between — which is why "first non-soundtrack album since 2021" is the more precise description.

Bumps Per Minute was a characteristically playful concept: a set of studies written around dodgem cars. Fibs was the bigger, more expansive follow-up to her 2016 debut album Varmints, which won the Scottish Album of the Year Award.

In between, Meredith has spent much of her time writing for the screen. According to Pitchfork, her scores since Fibs include the A24 film Tuesday and the Netflix film The End We Start From. Before that, her score for Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade had introduced her music to a much wider audience.

So Darling is less a comeback than a return to the format where she sets her own brief.

Who is Anna Meredith?

Meredith was born in London and raised in Scotland. Pitchfork describes her as a contemporary classical composer whose catalogue moves between intricate classical writing, hyperpop and expansive ambient music.

That range is the point. She trained in classical composition and has written for orchestras and ensembles, but her albums sound nothing like a conventional classical release. They are built on electronics, pounding drums, clarinet and brass, often performed by her own touring band, and they owe as much to electronic dance music as to minimalism.

Releasing via Mercury KX — the Decca-associated label known for new classical, ambient and electronic artists — fits that crossover profile.

Why this one matters

Composers who cross between the concert hall, film scores and pop audiences are no longer rare, but few do it with Meredith's sense of fun. Her best work is both rigorous and ridiculous: carefully engineered, and designed to make you grin.

The Darling statement suggests she is turning both dials up. "Higher highs", "more confidence", music to "summon motion, tension, and release" — this is pitched as a record for the body as much as the head, written at a time when, in her words, the world feels overwhelming.

For listeners who found her through a film score, it is a chance to hear what she does with no picture to serve. For long-time fans, it is the first full statement in years.

Key details

Artist: Anna Meredith

Album: Darling

Release date: 12 February 2027

Label: Mercury KX

Lead single: "Dusky", with stop-motion video, out now

Tracks: 11

Previous non-soundtrack albums: Fibs (2019), Bumps Per Minute: 18 Studies for Dodgems (2021)

Recent scores: Tuesday (A24), The End We Start From (Netflix)