Wales’ most prolific musical chameleon is at it again. Tom Emlyn — the Swansea-born songwriter who reportedly cannot stop writing songs even if you asked him politely — returns on 15th May 2026 with his sixth solo album in just four years, ‘Passing Craze’, out via Cardiff’s Dirty Carrot Records on Digital, CD, and Vinyl LP.

If that pace sounds suspicious, it should. God Is In The TV has previously dubbed Emlyn “Wales’ most prolific musician”, and ‘Passing Craze’ only adds fuel to that very tuneful fire.

The origin story of this record is delightfully accidental. The album began life as a final university project for producer Evan Collett, Tom’s bandmate in the psychedelic garage outfit Rainyday Rainbow. Collett needed a record to graduate from DBS (Deep Blue Sound) in Bristol, so he asked Tom whether there happened to be any unrecorded material lying about. There was — quite a lot of it, in fact. A clutch of forgotten gems, fragments, and songs dating back to Tom’s teenage years were unearthed, and they all somehow began speaking to each other.

Tracking started in a frankly intimidating studio room at DBS, parked in front of a colossal analog desk. Songs began as skeletal acoustic guitar doubled in classic Elliott Smith fashion, then layered with drums, piano, electric guitar and harmonica. The university’s three-hour booking limit forced a certain breathless urgency into the sessions — which, as anyone who’s ever made a record under deadline knows, can sometimes be the secret sauce.

Once Collett graduated, work continued at home in Cardiff, where ‘Passing Craze’ slipped fully into bedroom-pop territory. Trumpet, melodica, percussion from drummer Jack Patrick, and backing vocals by Alys Hardy filled out the edges. Collett added wonderfully strange production flourishes — slide guitar, banjo played with a violin bow, and the now-mythic appearance of his grandfather’s 1970s Roland analog synth, rescued from a storage unit during a parental house renovation. Being monophonic, it forced fresh harmonic thinking and ended up gracing nearly every track. Push it through a VHS-degradation guitar pedal and you get the gloriously charred lofi haze that powers ‘Your Dishes’ and ‘Burning the Candle’ — Tom describes it as making the synth sound like it was on fire. Hard to argue.

Thematically, ‘Passing Craze’ reads like a record that wrote itself — a quietly insistent narrative of dreams, struggle, delusion, failure, and the slow patient business of putting the pieces back together. FFO Elliott Smith, George Harrison and Bob Dylan, which is the kind of company you only get to keep if you actually earn it.

Stream the album in full here: https://on.soundcloud.com/HjRjJOvSP3UetXHm7e

Pre-order the vinyl via Dirty Carrot Records: https://www.dirtycarrotrecords.co.uk/product-page/tom-emlyn-passing-craze-vinyl

Tom Emlyn — Upcoming Live Dates 2026

May 23 — Devauden Festival
May 30 — Phyllis Maud, Newport
June 2 — New Cross Inn, London
June 12 — The Foundry, Brecon
June 13 — Cafe Kino, Bristol
June 20 — Wynnstay, Machynlleth
June 26 — Stori Beers, Bala
June 27 — Kinning Park Complex, Glasgow
July 11 — Gwyl Tyisha Festival, Llanelli
July 12 — The Glad, London
August 1 — CWRW, Carmarthen
August 28 — Aberjazz, Fishguard

‘Passing Craze’ is out 15th May 2026 via Dirty Carrot Records. Catch Tom on the road across Wales, England and Scotland throughout the summer — and do yourself a favour and hit play before the rest of the country catches up.