The Futureheads have shared ‘Jekyll’ – the lead single from their forthcoming sixth album (and first electric guitar release in almost a decade!), out on 30 August. Already a favorite with Steve Lamacq and his 6Music chums, it feels like the Mackem four-piece have never been away.
Described by Barry Hyde as ‘a monstrous, preposterous riff for monstrous, preposterous times’, it compares the horrors of schoolboy fights to the divisive times all around the world right now. Opening with a killer art rock-inspired guitar hook and trademark snappy rhythm section, Barry angrily asks ‘Are you an animal all the time or only when the human slips your mind?’ in an accusatory tone before going to task on the playground bully: ‘Can you predict the changes in your mood? Did you evolve from creatures in the dust? From the beasts and everything that came before us?’
He then talks about the effect these fights (and especially the group gatherings whenevrr they happened) had on his mindset: ‘I remember a fight in school, I was horrified. The evil grins and suffering burnt into mind’. He talks about how if he had the chance to go back, he’d have nothing to do with these fights and walk away but as that’s not possible, he just wishes he had answers. Barry’s bandmates join in as he asks: ‘Can you control your transformations?’ over chunky riffs and a Dinosaur Pile-up-style punk solo.
Catch The Futureheads on the following UK tour dates:
4th May Sugarmill Stoke on Trent
5th May Leicester Handmade Festival
28th May The Globe Cardiff
29th May The Garage London – SOLD OUT
30th May Concorde2 Brighton
31st May The Waterfront Norwich
1st June Rescue Rooms Nottingham
