The Futureheads Announce Their First Electric Album in a Decade

THE FUTUREHEADS are delighted to announce that Powers, their sixth studio album and their first electric guitar release in almost a decade, will be released on August 30, 2019. Recorded and self-produced at Newcastle's First Avenue Studio, Powers is a record that looks "at the balance of power in a personal, political and relational sense" and puts it to some of the most vital, invigorated material the band have made since their first steps.

Lead single "Jekyll" received its first radio play on May 1st from 6Music's Steve Lamacq and has since been played by Marc Riley (the band are in session on June 5th) and Shaun Keaveny, who made it his 'single of the week.' It has been played by Radio X's John Kennedy who made it his X-Posure show's 'Hot One', and when Felix White sat in for him, he interviewed the band.

Having first emerged at the start of the '00s amidst a burgeoning swarm of guitar bands, the Sunderland quartet, with their proud regional accents and spiky, playful sensibilities, stuck out from the off. Over the following decade The Futureheads - comprised of vocalists and guitarists Barry Hyde and Ross Millard, vocalist and bassist David 'Jaff' Craig and vocalist and drummer Dave Hyde - amassed five critically-acclaimed albums, headlined countless tours and earned an NME Single of the Year accolade for their iconic cover of Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love'.

Returning with Powers, the band's aim is one of forward motion not nostalgia; though the quartet could probably rely on the successes of old to push them through the next couple of festival seasons, that isn't - and hasn't ever - been the point. "Obviously it's an absolute privilege to come back and still have fans and that's something to cherish," Ross says, "but I also think we've got a bit of a job to do about letting people know that there's more to this band than you might have thought."

It's a risky statement, but one that's confirmed immediately once you press play. Across the album, the band push further, melodically and lyrically, than ever before; there's no safety net here, but a band putting everything out there and driving it to the wire again. "I love the thing Bowie said about how an artist should be slightly out of their depth because that's when you get the good stuff," Barry affirms. "Or as David Lynch says, 'If you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deep.'"

The frantic rattle of "Headcase" and its emotional flipside "Animus" - one rooted in mania, the other depression - find the singer dredging down to the problems that put a stopper on the band in the first place. "My main thing was about accepting how my mind works and then trying to love that. The danger of mental illness is becoming trapped in something like depression; you can't stay manic for too long, you end up sectioned or probably dead because you become so uncaring about your own safety," he explains. "I'm not a victim of my own mind anymore;

To post a comment, you must register and login.