BORN in the musical fires of Manchester, currently resident in Berlin, it’s fair to say that there’s a decent dose of proper musical heritage, maybe a little darkness, a willingness to party and explore the edges, in the DNA of The Underground Youth.
The band, led by Craig Dyer and also comprised of his wife Olga, Leonard Kaage and Max James, have announced their tenth album, The Falling, will be out come March 12th on their longtime home, Fuzz Club Records.
They’re taking a little introspective swerve away from the blurry dark post-punk/psych stylings of tracks such as 2017’s “The Outsider” and last year’s haunting, early goth dancefloor haze, “The Death Of The Author” (and I mean when goth was great – think “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, think “Body Electric”) for a more stripped-back take firmly within the man-in-noir tradition, as you can find out for yourself on the video for the first single, “A Sorrowful Race”; watch below.
Introspection is very much the lyrical key to this track: “Why he’s achieved so much more than I, in such a short amount of time, well I’ll never understand why, I’ll just keep writing line after line after line after line”, sings Craig.
“This track is something of personal attack on myself, and the narcissistic frustration at those whose success has overshadowed my own,” the man himself says.
“It could be perceived as egoistic, but the idea with this record was to be as honest as possible, lyrically; that included addressing the feelings that were maybe harder to face.”
The Falling may appear a little less intense on the surface, with an instrumental palette of acoustic guitars, piano, accordion and string arrangements. Don’t be fooled.
“Lyrically this album finds me at my most honest and autobiographical. I still shroud the reality of what I have written within something of a fictional setting, but the honesty and the romance that shines throughout the record is more sincere than it has been in my previous work.
“The idea was to strip back the band to allow for lyrical breathing space,” Craig reveals.
March, it seems, will still very much have ides for us to beware.
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