NEWS
Patrick Wolf shares new track 'Hymn Of The Haar' from upcoming album Crying The Neck
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Patrick Wolf has unveiled “Hymn Of The Haar,” the third track from his forthcoming album Crying The Neck, due out 13 June. The release follows the singles “Dies Irae” and “Limbo,” and arrives just ahead of Wolf’s UK tour, which kicks off on 8 May in Manchester.
“Hymn Of The Haar” is an atmospheric reflection shaped by the geography and shifting moods of the White Cliffs of Dover, near Wolf’s home in East Kent. The track, inspired by three years of walks and research, explores personal connection to land, sorrow, and solace. “It became a song that accepts, as I have at my age, that we can only learn how to live alongside our sorrows,” says Wolf. The title references the sea mist known as “haar,” symbolizing grief and fleeting clarity.
Crying The Neck marks Wolf’s first full-length album in thirteen years, and his first since 2023’s The Night Safari, which marked his return after a decade-long creative hiatus shaped by addiction, personal loss, and recovery. Written and recorded in Ramsgate, the album is deeply rooted in the East Kent landscape and shaped by local folklore, grief, and personal renewal.
Entirely self-written, composed, and arranged, Crying The Neck represents a full-circle return to the tools and instruments that defined Wolf’s early sound—baritone ukulele, Appalachian dulcimer, and even the Atari he used as a teenager. The album is the first in a planned four-part series structured around the pagan wheel of the year, with Crying The Neck focusing on the harvest season and the passing of Wolf’s mother in 2018.
Rather than nostalgia, the record leans into transformation, revisiting and reimagining old material with new understanding. From the haunting beauty of “Hymn Of The Haar” to the personal and political nuances of tracks like “The Last of England,” Crying The Neck is a deeply layered work that reclaims grief as both a landscape and a source of creative power.
“Hymn Of The Haar” is an atmospheric reflection shaped by the geography and shifting moods of the White Cliffs of Dover, near Wolf’s home in East Kent. The track, inspired by three years of walks and research, explores personal connection to land, sorrow, and solace. “It became a song that accepts, as I have at my age, that we can only learn how to live alongside our sorrows,” says Wolf. The title references the sea mist known as “haar,” symbolizing grief and fleeting clarity.
Entirely self-written, composed, and arranged, Crying The Neck represents a full-circle return to the tools and instruments that defined Wolf’s early sound—baritone ukulele, Appalachian dulcimer, and even the Atari he used as a teenager. The album is the first in a planned four-part series structured around the pagan wheel of the year, with Crying The Neck focusing on the harvest season and the passing of Wolf’s mother in 2018.
Rather than nostalgia, the record leans into transformation, revisiting and reimagining old material with new understanding. From the haunting beauty of “Hymn Of The Haar” to the personal and political nuances of tracks like “The Last of England,” Crying The Neck is a deeply layered work that reclaims grief as both a landscape and a source of creative power.
