Louise Wener is back at the mic, as Sleeper have returned and have a new album due, but this time it’s a bit different.

‘End of the World’ isn’t the old wry storytelling of her ’90s output – this time, it’s personal.

“It’s a very different record for me,” says Louise. “I’m Gen X, we tend not to confront our emotions or display them easily to the outside world. There’s strength in that, but also solitude. I got to the point where I felt I was dissolving. Like if I didn’t put my discomfort somewhere, I’d cease to exist.”

Written and recorded between Paris and Manchester, she adds: “I had to work out who I was at this point in my life. It’s so common, I think, this mid-life vertigo. Everything felt like it was shifting: kids leaving home, family ripped apart after my mother’s death, things from my past I’d spent years trying not to confront, the wider world becoming harder and harder to make sense of. It’s suffocating, living a version of yourself you no longer recognise.”

Have a listen to this new one. There’s a tour due and the album is out February 2027.