The Band: DESPERATE JOURNALIST

The Track: ‘POISON PEN'

The Format: DIGITAL SINGLE

The Launch Date: JANUARY 28TH 2022

The Truth: Fragrantly perky post-punksta quartet DESPERATE JOURNALIST continue the muscular support of their magnificent 'Maximum Sorrow!' album with the appearance of the 'Poison Pen' track to coincide with live shows, including a headline bash at Kings Cross Lafayette, and their first ever excursion to SXSW in Austin.

'Maximum Sorrow!' appeared mid-lockdown, ie summer last year, and it ended 2021 in the midst of a flurry of furiously appreciative end-of-year polls. Godisinthetv were especially enthusiastic, making it their Album Of The Year. They said "The singles ‘Fault’, ‘Personality Girlfriend‘ and ‘Everything You Wanted‘ were a broad palette of styles and influences, from the rumbling, bass drenched post-punk brilliance, through jangle pop perfection to epic, emotional and atmospheric anthem, this record has it all," and they said a lot more in the Top 50 countdown here:
www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2021/12/08/god-is-in-the-tv-albums-of-2021-50-1/

'Poison Pen' sees the fruitily scowling foursome, who still very much consist of singer Jo Bevan, guitarist Rob Hardy, drummer Caz Hellbent and bassist Simon Drowner, in classically dark crunchy indie mode, all galloping rhythms tussling with a cocktail of spiky guitars. There's a corking chorus and a spoken word bit thrown into the mix as well, which you may or may not expect from a song which includes the lines "Hero, nihilist, jailer / You are oh so tall and sesquipedalian / Tell me more about alienation / You laureate of your station."

"Lyrically this is a good example of "praxis making perfect"," explains Jo. "It initially came out of a drunken scribbled rant I had about how much I hate Martin Amis (titled 'Martin Amis Hollywood Actor'), then it blossomed into a longer drunken scribbled lyric about loads of other entitled and overrated (male) writers I hate, and now I've realised it's actually about Morrissey. So there we are. I particularly love the middle eight here - I wanted it to be a bit like one of the most exciting songs of all time, 'If I Had A Soul' by Comet Gain, and I think it sort of expresses some of what I love about that. Also, the deliberate Smithsy bathos of ending it on the bended "sad trombone" guitars makes me laugh/is as apt as anything."

‘Massive Sorrow!’ represents their fourth full album release in the six years since the ‘Desperate Journalist’ debut appeared in 2015, with sophomore effort ‘Grow Up’ storming out in 2017 and the search for ‘The Search For The Miraculous’ illuminating 2019. Throw in a couple of five-track EPs (‘Good Luck’ and ‘You Get Used To It’) and their melody-shattering proficiency is apparent for all to see. Add in a litany of ten-out-of-ten media reviews and utterly devotional followings from desperate fanboys and fangirls from Bedford to Berlin and Desperate Journalist’s incredibly credible status is more bulletproof than ever before.

Go see them shooting for the stars here, here and there...

FEBRUARY 12TH 2022 NOTTINGHAM BODEGA
FEBRUARY 19TH 2022 LONDON KINGS CROSS LAFAYETTE
MARCH 14TH - 20TH 2022 AUSTIN SXSW FESTIVAL
APRIL 15TH 2022 SHEFFIELD RECORD JUNKEE
APRIL 16TH 2022 NEWCASTLE HEAD OF STEAM
APRIL 17TH 2022 BIRMINGHAM HARE & HOUNDS
JULY 31ST 2022 PENRITH KENDAL CALLING

www.desperatejournalist.co.uk