Desperate Journalist - No Hero - LP Gatefold

Never knowingly lacking in a strife of surprises, crescendonically deadpan quartet DESPERATE JOURNALIST return to the musical affray with a brand new single, 'Unsympathetic Parts 1 & 2' on June 10th. This is the first track to be taken from their fifth album, entitled 'No Hero' and released on September 27th on fierce panda records. As creative re-entries go, 'Unsympathetic Parts 1 & 2' is a gleaming, beaming signpost towards a longplayer which sees Desperate Journalist push and pull their original noirish indie sound into newer, ever more nubile shapes and jagged angles without losing that glowering essence rare. So Part 1 gives us a rollicking 'Weird Fishes' groove, some sparkling, spiralling electronics and singer Jo Bevan reeling around with the unsettling 'Unsympathetic! Unsympathetic!' mantra while also throwing in caustic blimey lines like: "'Cause when you're on the stage, you really look your age...'Cause no matter who you are, you'll never be a star." Oh yeah, and Part 2 totally changes tack and revels in a frankly gorgeous prog coda. Or, more accurately, in Jo's words...
"This is the first song we wrote specifically as a synth-led track (of which more feature on the album). Lyrically it’s inspired by/fully quotes the John Cassavetes/Gena Rowlands film 'Opening Night' which I had seen for the first time shortly before writing the melody and had struck me with its simultaneously dreamlike and gritty atmosphere. It seemed an appropriate fit for the swirly yet tense chord progression Rob had come up with. Then I added a vaguely satanic choir chorus, obviously. Part 2 is where everything spirals off into space, oblivion, or some kind of dissociative dreamland." Desperate Journalist now very much consist of Jo Bevan (vocals, synths and drum machine); Robert Hardy (guitars, synths and piano); Caroline Helbert (drums, drum machines and percussion); Simon Drowner (bass and synths).

Side A :
Adah / No Hero / Afraid / Comfort / Silent

Side B :
Underwater / 7 / Unsympathetic Parts 1 & 2 / You Say You're Lonely / Consolation Prize