Gruff Rhys announces Irish tour for his new album Pang!

Pang! marks the sixth solo album by Gruff Rhys. With the album coming out on September 13, the Welsh musician now announced an Irish tour, covering Dublin, Cork and Belfast. See the tour dates below:

• December 9 - Whelan's, Dublin
• December 10 - Live At St. Luke's, Cork
• December 11 - Empire Music Hall, Belfast

For Pang! Gruff Rhys teamed up with South African electronic artist Muzi who produced and mixed the album. He also did a remix of 'Bae Bae Bae', the lead single from Pang!. The influence of Muzi is definitely noticeable as the album is described as a pop record with a couple verses of Zulu, one of the official languages of South Africa.

Rhys since released another song from the album, the title track 'Pang!'. It's a Welsh language song with an English title. The musician states: "It started life as a folk reel and soon expanded into a 'list' song, listing various reasons for pangs; hunger, regret, twitter, pain, bad design etc. Using the English word pang in a Welsh language track may appear weird but I suppose it’s like using the French word 'Magazine' in an English song. In that it's slightly pretentious but completely acceptable."

The new album comes after the Super Furry Animals frontman released his fifth solo record Babelsberg last year. Hot Press's John Walshe called it "one of the finest albums Rhys has ever produced, with or without the rest of the band." Now the question is: Can Pang! live up to its predecessor?

Pang! can be pre-ordered here. See the tracklisting below:

1. Pang!
2. Bae Bae Bae
3. Digidigol
4. Ara Deg (Ddaw’r Awen)
5. Eli Haul
6. Niwl O Anwiredd
7. Taranau Mai
8. Ol Bys / Nodau Clust
9. Annedd Im Danedd