The Futureheads have released their new album Powers today, check it out on New Music Friday below.
The band’s first ‘electric’ album in nearly a decade after 2012’s acapella Rant and a long subsequent break, it offers a fiercely honest account of the mental health issues experienced by the band’s singer Barry Hyde. “First things first: this is not an easy listen – musically they never have been,” our review reads.
“Their unique brand of angular art-pop has, whilst demonstrating musical dexterity, always been a razor-sharp assault on the ears. This continues on Powers, but the subject matter is very personal, Hyde’s struggles with his health dominating the album.”
“Lead single Jekyll was an effective way to announce their return, with all their USPs compressed into four minutes. The illogical chord sequences, brutal drumming and vocal harmonies are all present and correct, albeit with a touch more drama than in the past. Listen, Little Man!, another recent single, could also only be them, all wonky stomp and winding, furious guitars.”
“The former is about the unpredictability of human behaviour, the latter about the suppression or lack of aspiration of the common person in the modern age.”