TV Priest Announce Debut Album ‘Uppers’

New track 'This Island' is out now...

There isn’t a beginner’s guide to launching a band during a global pandemic, yet amongst the ensuing sense of despair and chaos, TV Priest’s first release ‘House Of York’ in April was eulogized for its gob smacking detail and blistering accuracy of the ongoing political disharmony of post-Brexit Britain.

The pandemic has seen us reluctantly retreat from the mosh pit, instead being thrown into a pulpit of political discourse. The early efforts of TV Priest’s live and recorded performances are already strong enough to be championed as powerfully observed statements on the woeful cultural and political state of Britain in 2020.

However, there is a danger to believing that everything you say is gospel truth, it is the London four-piece who are more aware of than anyone else. The band's recent release of ‘This Island’ makes the crucial observation that they, much like all of us don’t have all the answers.

Frontman, Charlie Drinkwater explains: “‘This Island’ is about incoherence and inarticulate responses, both personal and political, in a time and place you don’t fully understand anymore. It’s an unrequited love letter, and a howl of frustration; a mea culpa and a call to arms.” The track has been released to a political backdrop of increasing nationalism, where scapegoating the vulnerable is used as a fierce tactic to subvert from the real issues at hand. Drinkwater describes the Island as a response to “a parochialism that feels rampant in the UK”.

This anthemic debut release throws us into a frantic dervish of pepped-up punk and distortion. At times the sound subverts, summoning up strange wordless howls of frustration from the band’s growling frontman. Whilst confronting themes and feelings of deep uncertainty and discomfort, this is a single and more importantly a band that remind us that we have a world to win.

Check out 'This Island' below.

TV Priest will release new album 'Uppers' on November 13th.

Words: Josh Crowe

Join us on the ad-free creative social network Vero, as we get under the skin of global cultural happenings. Follow Clash Magazine as we skip merrily between clubs, concerts, interviews and photo shoots. Get backstage sneak peeks, exclusive content and access to Clash Live events and a true view into our world as the fun and games unfold.

 

-
Join the Clash mailing list for up to the minute music, fashion and film news.