Out 1st March
- an illusion
- we make hits
- down by the stream
- the undertow
- dream job
- fizzy fish
- petroleum
- when the laughter stops
- grifter’s grief
- blackpool illuminations
- a vineyard for the north
the quartet’s second act is a giant leap forward into broad and playful new sonic waters.
“the main reason that ‘post-punk’ was the vehicle for album one was because it was really affordable to do, but we always liked so much other music and this time we've had the confidence to embrace it,” james explains. across the record, influences ranging from fela kuti to ennio moricone via spiller’s ‘00s pop smash ‘groovejet’ make themselves known.
whilst the band’s trajectory continuously shot upwards, vocalist james smith and his wife had also welcomed in a son. and it’s this duelling sense of responsibility and ambition, guilt, love, drive and everything in between that forms the narrative backbone of brilliantly exploratory second album where’s my utopia?
it’s a celebratory palette upon which smith allowed himself to reach lyrically deeper into himself than ever. gone, largely, are the outward-facing character studies of yore, replaced with a set of songs that stare fully into the headlights of life, wrangling with the frontman’s own fears and foibles to create a sort of promethean narrative - but with jokes. “you can commit to the idea that we’re just animals who eat and fuck and then we die, and that’s fine,” he suggests. “but for me, creativity always seems to be the best way of articulating the absolute minefield of what human existence is.”