Novelty Island

Novelty Island [aka Tom McConnell] releases third album Jigsaw Causeway on October 3rd, 2025 via Liverpool indies 9×9 Records & Ripe Records. In support, the Jigsaw Causeway tour will be trailing across the country throughout the autumn, calling at Novelty Island strongholds of Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London.

Inspired by the fuzzed-out, woozy production of Grandaddy, Beck and Boards of Canada, Jigsaw Causeway is a darker collection of surreal, melancholic lo-fi pop songs than previous Novelty Island releases. The album was composed by utilising fragments of music in a variety of combinations, pieced together by McConnell to create his latest body of work. This mighty puzzle began on tape in Aberhosan, then harmonium tracked in Oxford, a brass band captured in Kippax and the record’s final stages tracked in Liverpool. The new album artwork also features a papier-mâché sculpture of a train featuring 50,000 jigsaw pieces created by McConnell. His unique papier-mâché animated props bring a unique aesthetic to the striking Novelty Island live show.

Novelty Island’s hook-filled dream pop channels surrealism and Northern melancholy through classic songwriting. The project is led by Liverpool-based songwriter and producer, Tom McConnell, who describes the sound as “Paul McCartney having an argument with Bernard Black”. Eclectic songs inspired by childhood, motorways, trains, old televisions, cowboys, space, birds and balloons form their first two albums How Are You Coping With This Century? and Wallsend Weekend Television. Both albums have received great support from Shindig!, MOJO, BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing and Absolute Radio amongst others. The Novelty Island live band have performed at Glastonbury Festival and toured the UK extensively as a headline act and support to Sea Power, The Pale White, Scott Lavene, High Llamas and China Crisis.