Partnering again with Berlin-based producer Ewan Pearson (who worked on much of Out of the Woods, and more recently with Delphic), Tracey has created an album that is striking in its simplicity. Recorded in Berlin and London, and featuring guest contributions from Hot Chip's Al Doyle, The Invisible's Leo Taylor, Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Lekman, Nashville singer-songwriter-drummer Cortney Tidwell and Los Valentinos' guitarist, Jono, Love And Its Opposite is steeped in a compassionate directness. The tight, often undecorated arrangements for guitar, piano, bass, and drums (and a smattering of strings and woodwind) serve ten songs over a compact thirty-nine minutes that confront the full unvarnished weight of complex relationships in flux.

'It is a record about the person I am now and the people around me,' says Tracey. 'About real life after forty.'

Covers of Lee Hazlewood's 'Come On Home To Me' (a duet with Jens Lekman) and 'You Are A Lover' by Budapest's The Unbending Trees (with whom Tracey collaborated in 2008) are added to eight originals that tackle head-on the realities of life in its middle years: marriage and divorce ('Long White Dress' and 'Oh, the Divorces!'); family ghosts ('Kentish Town'); confronting life alone ('Singles Bar'); and the collision of youth and adulthood ('Hormones'). In talking about 'Why Does The Wind?' and 'Late in the Afternoon,' Tracey says, 'Life needs stamina. Love is often either under threat or being urged to stand the test of time.' The album closes with 'Swimming' (featuring Cortney Tidwell on drums and backing vocals). 'I really wanted it to be the closing track,' she says. 'It holds out hope for love's survival even when it seems to be in hibernation.'

Backtracking, it is hard to find a decade recently where Tracey Thorn's songwriting has not been influential. Often overlooked by those who choose to focus on her uniquely sensual yet confessional voice, her direct, unadorned stories have cut through to find many revered supporters. Fresh out of school in the UK in the early 1980s, she formed the cult girl band Marine Girls, whose two-album career of edgy teen love songs has influenced lo-fi indie bands ever since. Among noted Marine Girls fans you'll find Kurt Cobain (Nirvana was reportedly rehearsing 'In Love' before Cobain's death) and The xx. In 1982, she followed it with her own eight-song classic, 'A Distant Shore', which catapulted her to the top of the UK indie charts. Throughout the 1980s, she shared writing with partner Ben Watt in the British duo Everything But The Girl (EBTG). In the '90s, she co-wrote EBTG's global smash 'Missing' before delivering lyrics, melody, and vocals for one of the decade's seminal ballads, Massive Attack's 'Protection,' and contributing centrally to EBTG's best-selling electronica crossover albums Walking Wounded and Temperamental. In 2006, she returned to the dance floor, writing 'Damage' for cult German duo Tiefschwarz before releasing Out of the Woods in 2007.

Love And Its Opposite also signals Tracey's return to the independent scene and unites her in a fresh alliance with longtime partner Ben Watt. Granted leave of absence from Virgin/EMI, she will see the album released on Ben's Strange Feeling Records (alt-pop sister imprint to his more famous dance label Buzzin' Fly) where she joins labelmates such as The Unbending Trees and Copenhagen's Figurines. Meanwhile, in North America, Merge Records (The Arcade Fire, Magnetic Fields, M Ward) will release the album, making Tracey one of only a handful of UK artists to have graced the illustrious Stateside independent.

Despite spending time out of the public eye, Tracey has been keen to stay engaged with her fans via MySpace, Facebook and Twitter where she now corresponds daily, posting photos of her garden and providing mixtapes, Spotify playlists and casual observation on everything from politics to X Factor, all with a dry, laconic sense of humor that has endeared her to many new followers.

Love And Its Opposite is a humane and truthful collection from one of our finest singers and songwriters. It will be released on May 18 (North America) and May 17 (Rest of the world).