Following the release of 2011’s Talahomi Way, bandleader Sean O’Hagan was “pretty down about the whole business of making records”, but besotted with the work of composer Steven Sondheim, decided to set about working on a follow-up, the Llamas’ first in five years.

In keeping with the Sondheim influence, Here Come The Rattling Trees originated as a play staged by the Llamas and a group of actors at London’s Tristan Bates Theatre in 2014. The play was conceptualized by O’Hagan while cycling around Peckham Square in London, where he resides, which saw sweeping changes wrought by gentrification and privatization, making for the Llamas’ most politically overt work. The play centers around cast of six characters (Amy, Mona, The Runner, The Decorator, The Plumber and Jackie) delivering a set of monologues reflecting these changes, interspersed with songs by the band on the characters.

The final album is not a 1:1 audio document of the stage play, as the monologues were not included as per a recommendation from Drag City, though the underscores that accompanied their monologues remain. Even in a catalogue full of left turns and detours, Rattling Trees stands alone in the Llamas’ discography and remains their sole venture into theatre as of yet.

Here Come The Rattling Trees was released in January 2016 on Drag City. While O’Hagan would release a solo album in the form of 2019’s Radum Calls, Radum Calls, the album was the last release from the band for nearly for almost a decade, marking the longest gap between studio albums as of writing.