Hotel Lux

Taken from the Portsmouth-raised yet London-based band’s upcoming debut EP. Which is titled Barstool Preaching. The track has been impeccably produced by Dave McCracken (Ian Brown, Pip Blom). And, in keeping with the band’s style – and the bulk of the label’s roster – the instrumentation is traditional handmade rock n’ roll. A straight drum beat. Thunderous bass. And choppy post-punk guitars underpins singer Lewis Duffin’s black-humoured lyricism.

On ‘Tabloid Newspaper’ – if we consider the band’s following statement about the song: “That old saying of the journo’s cut, paste and twist is the same in songwriting. Just no-one admits it. These three verses and a silly chorus are a confession” – we see there’s a self-deprecating protagonist. One who questions their integrity as a songwriter. One who pokes fun at the rhetoric appropriated to sell music. ‘Be cathartic, deep’. In other words, the song begs the question. Are singers structuring their take on the lyrics to fit the mould they’re taught makes a song good? Possibly. ‘Tabloid Newspaper’ can be heard as a light-hearted exposé of those who are playing games of smoke and mirrors. Equally, it’s a morbid reminder of the sabotaging role the tabloids can play in people’s lives.

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