The Act: DESPERATE JOURNALIST

The Release: 'YOU SAY YOU'RE LONELY'

The Formats: DIGITAL SINGLE

The Release Date: SEPTEMBER 4TH 2024

The Digital Link: orcd.co/you_say_youre_lonely

The Truth: life-affirmingly deadpan quartet DESPERATE JOURNALIST release a glacial new single called 'You Say You're Lonely' on September 4th. This is the third track to be taken from their forthcoming fifth album, entitled 'No Hero' and released on September 27th on fierce panda, with Rough Trade instores to coincide and tourdates coming both at the end of this year and the start of 2025 - full shows showing below.

'No Hero' is available to pre-order on coloured vinyl, compact disc and cassette in various guises right now from: townsendmusic.store/products/artist/Desperate+Journalist

The furiously emotive foursome returned to the musical affray with 'Unsympathetic Parts 1 & 2' on June 10th, which saw them push and pull their original noirish indie sound into newer, ever more nubile shapes and jagged angles without losing that shadowy essence rare. 'Afraid' upped that intense ante on July 24th by laying on the melodic passion in spades , singer Jo erupting with a great big gulping Bjork-type chorus (see: "I love you and I'm sick of everything / I love you, you're the only one listening") before everything glided off into a gloweringly enraptured denouement.

All things being relative, 'You Say You're Lonely' is more solemn and restrained than its predecessors, but still hanging on that cricual Desperate Journalist melodic hook. Dare one say it's slightly Talk Talk-esque in its stripped back, piano-dashed aura? Yes, yes one does.

Or, as Jo explains: "The song is kind of me talking to an imagined younger self, and I wanted it to be equal parts comforting and bleak. The lyrics are purposefully a bit obscure and abstract as I wanted them to be more poetic than specific. Musically this is one of the most atmospheric tracks we have yet recorded I think and I'm really proud of how the sparseness and tension in the verse contrasts with the catchy-pop chorus, whilst the song remains cohesive as a whole."

And that is the 'No Hero' album in a heroic nutshell: there are shiny synthesisers; there are fantastical gothic ruminations; there are stormtrooping melodies; there are ghostly piano-led interludes, berserk guitar outbursts and the odd bit which sounds a bit like The Icicle Works.

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). They will be playing these live shows here:

SEPTEMBER 13TH SOUTHEND Chinnerys
SEPTEMBER 28TH LONDON Rough Trade Instore
SEPTEMBER 30TH BRISTOL Rough Trade instore
OCTOBER 1ST OXFORD The Jericho Tavern
OCTOBER 2ND LIVERPOOL Rough Trade instore
NOVEMBER 21ST BEDFORD Esquires
NOVEMBER 22ND BIRMINGHAM The Dark Horse
NOVEMBER 23RD BRIGHTON Dust
JANUARY 15TH BRISTOL Exchange
JANUARY 16TH NOTTINGHAM Bodega
JANUARY 17TH LEEDS Belgrave Music Hall
JANUARY 18TH MANCHESTER YES
JANUARY 23RD LONDON HIGHBURY The Garage

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