Zeros

Zeros is the fourth studio album and second major-label album by Declan McKenna. It was released worldwide on 4 September 2020 through Because Music, Columbia Records and Tomplicated Records.

Background
Unlike Declan's previous album, written on guitar, much of Zeros was written using his sister's keyboard. He wrote and produced dozens of songs at his flat in London, England, from 2016 to 2018. Select songs were re-recorded with a full band and production by Max Marlow and Ru Lemer at a barn in Kent, England, in February 2019. Wishing to take things one step further, the album was recorded for a third time with production by Jay Joyce at Neon Cross in Nashville, Texas, from 27 July to 16 August 2019.

The album was announced on 29 January 2020 with an intended release date of 15 May. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was later announced that the album would be postponed to 21 August. Concerts were also rescheduled accordingly. The album was eventually postponed again to 4 September.

Artwork
Frank Fieber took the cover photo as Declan spun on a Rotor fairground ride in Kent, England. Declan states in behind-the-scenes footage that the idea derived from a 2019 Glastonbury performance of "Spinning Around" by Kylie Minogue. Frank and Joe Heaton's original sketches portrayed Declan surrounded by broken circles with solid white eyes and lightning bolt makeup, which both went unused in the final image.

Graphic design was done by Alex Bois, who also designed the font used for physical editions and promotional material.

Cut songs
After posting a censored photo of nearly 30 demos on his computer on 7 January 2019, Declan compared the album's length to that of English singer Zayn's albums. Ultimately, only 14 songs were recorded in Nashville and 4 of them were scrapped from the final tracklist. This is a list of songs that didn't make the cut.


 * "Don't Make a Fool of Yourself"
 * "Macbeth"
 * "Sonny"