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Clara Benin is releasing her sophomore album befriending my tears on vinyl. The indie-folk singer-songwriter officially announced the news on May 26, 2025 (Monday) through a video on her social media, which sees her receiving a test pressing of the vinyl from Backspacer Records. The Pasig City-based record store first teased its release last February 10 with a photo of Benin visiting their shop.
Notably, the version of the album pressed on vinyl will be its deluxe edition, dubbed befriending my tears (and then some), and will be available as a 1LP. It includes two extra songs, as well as remixes and live versions of certain tracks.
befriending my tears was intially released last August 11, 2023 and carries the fan-favorite tracks “small town,” “imposter syndrome,” “blink,” “keep still,” and more. It was followed by its deluxe edition, which came out last November 29, 2024 and added then-unreleased tracks, demos, remixes, and live recordings. In addition, Benin extensively toured the record across the Philippines from late 2023 to early 2025 and would even go on to perform at SXSW Sydney 2024 in Australia during this time.
“I never really thought of releasing a deluxe version. But I just felt like, you know, after touring the album, I just had so much fun with it and I felt I wasn’t ready to really close that chapter yet,” stated Benin in a Billboard Philippines interview. “I felt like there was something more and, like, the songs I’d been writing still felt like on theme with befriending my tears. So, it just made sense to extend that era and make a deluxe edition.”
The release date of the vinyl has yet to be announced but Benin has promised it is “coming real soon.” Watch this space for updates.
In other news, Clara Benin recently teamed up two other Filipino acts for brand-new versions of their songs. The first one was with alternative rock band ONE CLICK STRAIGHT for an acoustic version of their song “Telepono.” The second was with fellow singer-songwriter Paolo Sandejas for a revamped edition of his song “roses.”
Listen to Clara Benin’s befriending my tears (and then some) below: