This Is The Kit to Release GHOST COAT LP, Share 'Skim a Stone' Video

This Is The Kit, the Paris-based group led by Kate Stables, today announced the band's new album Ghost Coat will be released on January 15th, 2027, via Memphis Industries. Recorded at Rockfield Studios (home of the first recordings of The Stone Roses and Motörhead, as well as several Oasis hits and Queen's A Night at the Opera), the follow-up to the band's 2024 LP Careful Of Your Keepers is both 'very much obviously an album that I've made,' says Stables, and 'very different' from her previous work. It's a polyphonic LP, incorporating the voices and contributions of various friends and collaborators, including Richard Dawson, Sam Amidon, Ben Howard, guitarist brothers Valentin and Marceau Portron (of Portron Portron Lopez), and Emma Broughton AKA Blumi. Other voices include her long-standing bandmates Rozi Plain (bass, keys), Neil Smith (guitar), Jamie Whitby-Coles (drums, keys) and Jesse D. Vernon (guitar, keys).

This Is The Kit also shared the album's winding and punchy lead single 'Skim a Stone,' alongside a Stewart Baxter-directed video, and announced an extensive headlining spring tour across North America, Europe, and the U.K. The U.S. dates across the East Coast will see the band make their debut at Knoxville, TN's prestigious Big Ears festival, including shows in NYC (Le Poisson Rouge on March 24th), Chicago (Constellation Room on April 8th), and more, before returning to Europe for more dates, and ending in their biggest headlining London show to date at the Roadhouse on October 7th, 2027; a full itinerary is listed below and tickets for all shows go on-sale Friday, September 25th at 10am local time. Ghost Coat is now available for pre-order.

'What are the things that we wish on. An eyelash? More than three skims of a stone? A folded crisp? What magical thinking do we employ in the hope that things will be OK and go our way. What repetitive behavior do we notice. How does it calm us down. How do we explain why things happened and then decide it's OK to move on in life,' Stables says of the new single. Of the video, Baxter shared: 'What I loved about making this was that we didn't go into it trying to explain the song. We had this idea of 'practicing at life' and a loose collection of actions, objects and spaces, then allowed Kate to interact with them and see what happened. There's something in the song about the strange little rituals and behaviors we repeat as we try to connect, understand things, or make something happen. I wanted the video to leave those ideas open rather than resolve them.'

The ghostly garment referenced in the title of This Is The Kit's latest album was inspired by a shadow cast by the staircase in Kate Stables' new home. The phrase appeared in her head and has been echoing around it ever since, like echolalia. 'Ghost coat' could refer to a layer, a garment, a disguise, a memory–a mysterious presence that guides and watches over us, though its intentions are unknown. Stables points to an eerie Ben Folds Five lyric describing a similar invisible force ('I've faith that there's a soul somewhere / That's leading me round / I wonder if she knows which way is down.'). This haunting presence sits at the heart of her tender and thoughtful seventh LP: a meditation on home (both at peace and under threat), her friendships, and her ever-expanding community.

Raised in Winchester, UK, Stables has lived in Paris for 20 years, but kept being drawn back to the imagery and myth-making of the place where she grew up. A reflection on homecoming, the song 'Ghost Coat' references 'votive candles from the altar… Cromwell and the pilgrims.' 'Living in a cathedral city growing up, the building has got magic powers: some dark and scary, and some relating to community,' she explains. 'I was interested in exploring our relationship with home. Where home is, or was, where we come from, where we're going. Sometimes it's just where you put your bag down, especially for someone who travels a lot. Maybe it's less to do with a place, and more who you're with–people that make you feel like you're at home.'

While home is a constant source of comfort for Stables, the looming threat of Earth's climate crisis puts it at risk, setting an ominous and anxious urgency to many of the tracks. The jagged post-punk of 'Fiver' inveighs the 'fine line between using and wasting,' while the softer, 60s-tinged 'Lovely Grub' touches on the ever-growing demands of capitalism and the slickly seductive aspects of modern life that ultimately harm us. The mesmerizing album closer 'Not Enough Is Enough,' featuring Amidon on fiddle and vocals, advocates being content with what you have (it almost provided the title of the album). 'It's easy to compare our lives to others,' says Stables. 'Whether it's material, emotional, or in terms of what we're making and achieving and feeling pleased with. That's a sticky area–it's not always helpful to compare. The song is about what's reasonable to expect from people in your life, but also from the world.' This grace is one of the throughlines of the LP: finding peace in the way things have turned out, even if it isn't what we had planned, and accepting the situations we find ourselves in.

It all comes back to the concept of home, and in particular the people we call home. 'I hope listeners come away with a sense of shared experience,' says Stables. 'I'm someone who is prone to disappearing into a sort of burrow, and it's hard to know how to get out of the burrow. It's important that we continue to interact with each other. It's all about feeling a sense of community with other human beings out there.'

Ghost Coat LP Tracklist

1. Safety Valve

2. Skim a Stone

3. Catcher

4. Builders

5. Lamp Post

6. Ghost Coat

7. Tiny Eyes

8. Toad in the Hole

9. Fall Away

10. Lovely Grub

11. Fiver

12. Not Enough is Enough

This Is The Kit 2027 Tour Dates

11/20/26 - Geneva, CH - Les Créatives @ Salle Grand-Salève

11/21/26 - Vienna, AT - Bluebird Festival

12/13/26 - Bruges, BE - Duyster Festival @ Cactus

01/26/27 - Glasgow, UK - Celtic Connections @ Fruitmarket

01/30/27 - Bristol, UK - Bristol Beacon

03/10/27 - Sheffield, UK - Crookes Social Club

03/11/27 - Gateshead, UK - The Glasshouse

03/12/27 - Liverpool, UK - Hangar34

03/13/27 - Coventry, UK - Coventry Central Library

03/14/27 - Cambridge, UK - Junction 1

03/23/27 - Kingston, NY - Tubbys

03/24/27 - New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge

03/25/27 - Boston, MA - Warehouse XI

03/26/27 - Burlington, VT - Higher Ground Showcase Lounge

03/27/27 - Montreal, QC - Fairmount

03/29/27 - Toronto, ON - The Garrison

03/30/27 - Ann Arbor, MI - The Arc

04/01/27 - Knoxville, TN - Big Ears Festival

04/04/27 - Minneapolis, MN - Turf Club

04/06/27 - Stoughton, WI - Stoughton Opera House

04/08/27 - Chicago, IL - Constellation Club

04/09/27 - Pittsburgh, PA - Warhol Theater

04/10/27 - Washington, DC - Songbyrd

04/23/27 - Schorndorf, DE - Manufaktur

04/24/27 - Zurich, CH - Bogen F

04/25/27 - Basel, CH - Kuppel

04/28/27 - Heidelberg, DE - Karlstorbahnhof

04/29/27 - Berlin, DE - Frannz Club

05/01/27 - Copenhagen, DK - Vega

05/02/27 - Hamburg, DE - Knust

05/04/27 - Paris, FR - Maroquinerie

05/06/27 - Antwerp, BE - De Roma

05/07/27 - Amsterdam, NL - Tolhuistuin

09/24/27 - Dublin, IE - Button Factory

09/25/27 - Galway, IE - Roisin Dubh

09/26/27 - Cork, IE - Live at St Luke's

09/28/27 - Cardiff, UK - Tramshed

09/29/27 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club

09/30/27 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club

10/01/27 - Manchester, UK - New Century Hall

10/03/27 - Birmingham, UK - The Crossing

10/07/27 - London, UK - Roundhouse

Photo Credit: Ed Miles

Get Music Emails & Offers

Get the latest news, discounts & more