Hull alternative four-piece LIFE have released their fourth studio album ABSTRACT / NATURAL via EMI North label partner Launchpad+. An adventurous body of work that showcases the band at their most ambitious and experimental, it’s a collection that draws on folklore, mythology and the natural world, unified by the lived experiences and stories that weave in and out from beginning to end. The album arrives alongside their new single and video ‘Drinking Games’, described by the band as “a fun and raucous surf sounding track about the pressures of life“.
Gloriously cathartic, ‘Drinking Games’ opens deceptively slowly, with its ghostly reverberated vocals drifting over a cavernous, psychedelic introduction, before snapping suddenly into a spiky punk groove; a reminder that beneath all of ABSTRACT / NATURAL‘s folklore and myth, LIFE have never lost their instinct for pure, exhilarating energy and fun. On the video, the band explain:
“We wanted to give ‘Drinking Games’ a music video that felt like a celebration of everything leading to this point towards our new album ABSTRACT / NATURAL – throughout the video there are subtle references to previous singles and videos The Dollywaggon, Turning In and Wild Grasses. We also wanted to connect the more abstract visual style of the previous videos to something a little more performance-based. We had Mez leaning into his front man persona, against a rear projection backdrop that felt almost real but intentionally still somewhat separated. The end result feels fun, surreal, and a little bit drunken – resonating emotionally with the lyrical content of the track.”
ABSTRACT / NATURAL is LIFE’s fourth album and their most outward-looking work to date; a record that expands the band’s collective horizons while firmly keeping their DIY ethos and hometown roots intact. During the project’s inception, vocalist Mez Sanders-Green kept returning to a book of poetry he was writing on his many long-distance walks and adventures, transforming his experiences in the hills and fells into an imagined world.
Across its ten tracks, the album moves between sweeping landscapes, folklore myths and personal stories with remarkable ease. Anthemic opener ‘Wild Grasses’ quickly establishes these themes, while ‘The Dollywaggon’ traces an epic coast-to-coast journey via Sanders-Green’s stream-of-consciousness delivery over Mick Sanders’ razor-sharp guitars and Stewart Baxter’s lightning-quick drumming. Exploring fatherhood and recalling a memory of a trip to the Isle Of Mull, ‘Turning In’ strips things back to something tender and disco-grooved, while ‘Thistles Kiss’ builds from its delicate ambient piano intro before blossoming into bold, cinematic territory; a pagan-tinged adventure about escape and new beginnings. Meanwhile, ‘Mermaid Feet’ offers an intricately layered, dreamlike lullaby inspired by the mythical Mermaid Pools atop The Peak District’s Kinder Scout.
Elsewhere, the band’s favourite cut from the record ‘My Yan’ offers a breezy indie-rock ode to love and freedom inspired by a trip to the Lake District, while ‘Sun In Nancy’ bursts to life from its opening notes, Lydia Palmeira’s hypnotic bassline underpinning a post-punk meditation on escapism. The synth-driven ‘Buried Giant’ is motorik and relentless, its electronic textures carried forward by Baxter’s driving drums. Finally, ‘Morning Fog’ brings the album to a beautifully introspective close; a sparse and intimate piano-led reflection on adjusting to the strange reality of co-parenting.
Recorded at The Moon Factory, the band’s own studio on the banks of the Humber (a space they built themselves and now run as a creative hub for emerging Northern artists), ABSTRACT / NATURAL was produced by Stewart Baxter and Oliver Varga, mixed by James Kenosha and mastered by Stephen Kerrison.
LIFE Live Dates
June
23 – Brighton, Resident (instore)
24 – London, Rough Trade East (instore)
25 – Liverpool, Jacaranda (instore)
26 – Leeds, Jumbo Records (instore)
July
24-26 – Deer Shed Festival, North Yorkshire
October
1 – Newcastle, The Grove
2 – Lincoln, Southside
3 – Hebden Bridge, Trades Club
6 – London, Moth Club
7 – Southampton, The Joiners
8 – Bristol, Strange Brew
9 – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
November
28 – Vilnius, Lithuania, Kablys
For more information on LIFE please check their facebook and instagram.