This Is The Kit Return With Album ‘Ghost Coat,’ New Single “Skim a Stone” and 2027 Tour
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Editorial Dept.
This Is The Kit heads into 2027 with a new album, a new single, and a long run of tour dates. The Kate Stables-led group will release Ghost Coat in January, with “Skim a Stone” giving the first taste of the record. The tour spans North America, Europe, and the U.K., including a stop at Big Ears Festival and the band’s biggest London headline show yet.
In a press release, This Is The Kit’s team announced that Ghost Coat will arrive January 15, 2027, via Memphis Industries, while tickets for the tour go on sale Friday, September 25, at 10 a.m. local time.
Recorded at Rockfield Studios, Ghost Coat brings together contributions from Richard Dawson, Sam Amidon, Ben Howard, Valentin and Marceau Portron of Portron Portron Lopez, and Emma Broughton, aka Blumi. The record also features Stables’ longtime bandmates Rozi Plain, Neil Smith, Jamie Whitby-Coles, and Jesse D. Vernon.
Pre-order Ghost Coat:
“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.”
Watch the video for “Skim a Stone,” the first single from Ghost Coat:
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 has 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 against 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 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 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 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
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