DEADLETTER have released their debut album Hysterical Strength via SO Recordings. Preceded by a string of BBC 6 Music-playlisted singles including Mere Mortal, Mother, Relieved and More Heat!, Hysterical Strength welds elastic basslines, scratchy and discordant guitars, and rasping saxophones. Produced by famed British producer Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Adele), the album brings their own breed of exploratory art-punk that brews malevolent atmospheres and searches darkened corridors for clarity amongst the cacophony of chaos.
The world is brutal but there are cherry trees in blossom. This is the philosophy that underpins DEADLETTER, and their bruising, beautiful debut album Hysterical Strength. “It’s punishing but there’s also fucking beauty out there,”explains frontman Zac Lawrence, who, with life-long friends Alfie Husband and George Ullyott, and Poppy Richler, Sam Jones and Will King, may just have turned in one of 2024’s most urgent and vital listens – a record that, right down to its title, relishes the contradictions of modern life. “Being able to take something disgusting or disgraceful and make it sound nice through the power of music, that juxtaposition appeals to me,” Lawrence adds. The result is twelve tracks of motorik rhythms and angular guitars, adorned by smoky saxophone and baritone-belted lyrics about flickering television sets and dilapidated town centres decked with decapitated bodies. Its strengths are hysterical indeed.
In their short time releasing music the band has picked up support from the likes of BBC Radio 1, Clash, DIY, Dork, Kerrang!, Metro, NME, So Young, The Times, and also landed on the 6 Music playlist. They’ve sold out shows across the UK and Europe and in October 2024 will begin their biggest headline run to date.
DEADLETTER are:
Alfie Husband – Drums
George Ullyott – Bass
Poppy Richler – Saxophone
Sam Jones – Guitar
Will King – Guitar
Zac Lawrence – Vocals
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