Last month, London’s Desperate Journalist released their fourth LP ‘Maximum Sorrow’. Released via Fierce Panda, it was self-produced and engineered by Rollo Smallcombe at Crouch End Studios.
Having made the conscious decision to not repeat the rock-pop classic ‘In Search of the Miraculous’, could they reinvent themselves without losing way?
Previous singles ‘Fault’ and ‘Personality Girlfriend’ (among others) put bass player Simon Drowner front and centre. A destructive rage permeates his playing for almost the entirety of the album. The former throbs with a disdain we’ve all felt to those who abandoned leadership in the past eighteen months. On the latter, a punky-disco stomp akin to Bugeye shakes. All the while, singer Jo Bevan’s incredible ability to carry polemic via a gripping narrative reaches new heights. The closing stages adopt Idlewild’s ‘In Remote Part / Scottish Fiction’ complex cacophony of spoken word and guitars but, with a devastating psychedelic annihilation!
It is though, on ‘Utopia’, ‘Fine In The Family’ and ‘Was It Worth It?’ where they nail their new sound. ‘Utopia’ delivers the risk and reward Wolf Alice couldn’t land on their third album. The hints of shoegaze bring about an emotional to proceedings and thus, Bevan’s ethereal vocals beckon, almost summon you into the unknown. ‘Fine in the Family’ is the polar opposite sonically. Tapping into the violence of Asylums’ ‘Napalm Bubblegum’ as Drowner’s bass yet again taps a thunderous vein of form. Meanwhile, ‘Was It Worth It?’ with perhaps a lyrical nod to The Waterboys, strides out to their sorrowful heartlands with a brutal intensity not even The Chameleons could match. The protagonist, an anguished soul lost in a city of darkness with hope dissipating becomes the perfect parable for lockdown:
“they’re all endless roads / On a dismal island”
You can buy the record on their Bandcamp page.
Just when ferocity borders on the all-consuming, they provide a momentary release on ‘Poison Pen’ and ‘Victim’. ‘Poison Pen’, with its ecstatic immediacy and venomous lyrics, creates a polemic and defiance legions would follow. ‘Victim’, a torturous tale of repression and depression is lit up by guitars that could glisten in a thunderstorm. Bevan is faultless. Angelic to punk in an instant, a vocal talent at the peak of her powers
Four albums in, the creative well shows no signs of drying up. Basslines akin to wrecking balls and vocals from the gods, they have nodded at the majesty of ‘Miraculous…’ and said an amicable farewell. An album written in lockdown had the potential to be a lacklustre album from the tour bus; insular and lacking intelligent exploration. Not here, not Desperate Journalist. Every word vitriol, torment, and bile is despatched with wit, intelligence, and charm.
*Image and artwork courtesy of Fierce Panda Records.