Jack Hues streams adventurous new single Don't Waste Words

Jack Hues wearing a black face mask — (Image credit: Jack Hues/Press)

Wang Chung frontman Jack Hues has streamed his brand new single Don't Waste Words, which you can listen to below. It's taken from his upcoming solo album Electro-Acoustic Works 20:20 which will be released through The Dawn Chorus Recording Company on September 3.

Don't Waste Words was inspired by the life of Millican Dalton. Born in 1867, this ‘Professor Of Adventure’ ditched the insurance business in London and moved to the Lake District, where he lived in a cave and earned his keep as a walking tour guide. Hues was taken with one of the last entries in Millican's own journal.

“"Don’t Waste Words - jump to conclusions” is a line from the journal of Millican Dalton," he says. "At 36, he gave up his job in Insurance in London and moved to the Lake District, where he lived the rest of his life alone in a slate cave on a fellside above Borrowdale. His life seemed an extreme version of the lockdown experience, and his words felt particularly powerful, not in the sense of behaving recklessly, but in being in the moment and escaping the prison of thoughts and words that afflicted us all in 2020."

The album includes contributions from Syd Arthur's Josh Magill, as well as trumpeter Daniel Cano, Pete Grogan on tenor sax, and Hues' own daughter Violet. The cover artwork is one part of a triptych created by Ron Chadwick detailing his journey with cancer and 2020.

Hues adds, “2020 was a difficult and deadly year for many people, but it was also a time of slowing down, regrouping, re-assessing and looking to a future brighter than the past. The spirit of this album is all about that optimism."

Hues has previously released a video for We Gotta Work Together. You can view his September UK live dates below.

Pre-order Electro-Acoustic Works 20:20.

Jack Hues 2021 UK Shows:
Sep 16: Deal The Lighthouse
Sep 17: Margate Elsewhere
Sep 22: Brighton Komedia Studio
Sep 23: London St Pancras Old Church

Get tickets.

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.