“Don’t turn the light off and leave me”
After a two-year hiatus, the South-West four-piece Colour TV are back with their new single ‘iBaby’. Recorded at Cube Studios on the Cornish coast, it was mastered by Slowdive’s Simon Scott.
*image & artwork courtesy of the band & This Feeling.
In 2023, Colour TV reimagined the purpose of being a Wallflower with great English prose and tunes to rival Bernard Butler-era Suede. Everything was in place to give indie its soul back. Then came the news that frontman Sam Durneen was suffering from mental health issues.
What followed their announcement of return was inevitable. Questions of whether the world has moved on and can they still do it inevitably arose.
In their time away, Fontaines DC seminal album ‘Romance’ has proved the UK is ready to feel the love through its music again. Meanwhile, the emergence of The North, April Tapes, and Pynch has ushered in a new era of emotion-driven poetry inspired by indie-punk.
‘iBaby’ lands the band right at the heart of a scene seemingly designed for them to thrive. Jack Yeo’s guitars twist and tumble with the drama of ‘Dog Man Star’ and at points, rupture hearts with the isolation of Steve Mason (Gene).
Twisted and tormented, this brand of alt-pop music is essential for these times. Beneath its heartbreak, the song hums with the unease of a world coming apart, the failing relationship echoing a political climate unravelling at the seams. As Durneen declares, “I loved you like a son / Stone you like a mother / it’s never gonna feel how it did when you were young”, their unique sense of agony roared to the surface.
With Gene returning this month, and Suede releasing yet another great album, it’s only fitting that Colour TV return and offer this generation their vision. The spotlight may be on their esteemed elders, but it won't be for long.