An exploration of grief for oneself, the journey out of mourning, the battle we are all fighting to maintain ourselves, ART offers an upbeat and honest take on what it means to be human.

Talking to NME about their new album at the start of 2023, The Lottery Winners frontman Thom Rylance said: “I’ve always told my story in our songs. If you’re telling your own story, it’s never going to be boring. When I started assembling these songs, I realised that everyone I wrote was getting a bit lighter, feeling progressively less down.

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An omniscient narrator introduces the album as an audible therapy. You are instantly immersed in the kaleidoscope of your mind, are you worried about what you might find? How will you recover what is lost if you do not search for it?

Worry

Who are you when your head is full of worry? Trying to navigate your way through life whilst your mind is jumping to the direst conclusions takes a toll on the soul. Accompanied by raw visuals, depicting the honest scene of a depression pit, a tray from a takeaway you had two weeks ago festering by your bed, a pile of pills on the cabinet, unpaid bills glaring up at you from your nightstand. Every intention to face the day, fully dressed and ready but your funky, floral bedding becomes a straitjacket forcing you to stay.

Punctuated by the discarded first edition copy of the picture of Dorian Gray it can be interpreted that this song discusses the curse we all feel, lamenting our youth, wanting to revisit it and savour our innocence, haunted by who we could have been if we were parented differently, but then they wouldn’t be who we are and would only end up missing them. Gray also suffers from an addiction, an indulgent drug infused escapism that only imprisons you to a false face of reality.

This track echoes the familiar verve and energy from The Lottery Winners but also recreates the imploding pressure your brain puts upon itself in times of desperation. Each track stands as an individual anthem but all work together to reflect a year of frontman Rylance’s life.

Burning House

Sometimes we stay in burning houses just to stay warm, there are fires on the stairs so we stay safe in the living room, the TV loud enough to drown out the roar of the inferno so it becomes nothing more than a whisper, but we know it’s still there. Burning questions feed the flames as you ask yourself who you have become, who you are to the flames and plead with them to stop burning, but that is what a fire does, it destroys.

Katie Lloyd, electric bassist for the band, dominates the track with her uplifting energy,a complete contrast to the depth of the song offering an insight into how some of us act when everything is falling down, stoicism, the danger of saying you’re fine when you’re bleeding through your badly wound bandages.

Money

Featuring Shaun Ryder this song explores what it might feel like to live how we all deserve to life, freely. But how possessing a certain amount of money after having none can corrupt the mind, the more you spend the more you lose your sense of self. Fine line between worth ad greed but when you’ve worked hard, peeling your eyes red to stay alert on that late night shift, picking up more to make ends meet, you have a right to a little touch of luxury.

Outside of this it’s a satirical reflection on what many musicians hope to achieve, after juggling odd jobs, playing countless gigs to half empty rooms, headlining stages getting albums, sharing their success and doing what they love full time. It’s a lesson that, ART, which enriches the soul, offers a hand out of mess is so neglected by finance that the struggling, starving artist has become romanticised, if you’re not suffering you’re not doing it right, but talent should be celebrated, it should be invested in, art is pure, it’s the only thing we have to help us through.

Long Way Down

A loss of inspiration can send anyone into a sorrowful state of desperation, screaming out to find yourself, only hearing echoes of who you could have been if you had achieved the dream, you sold your soul to achieve. Who could you be if you could go back to your birth and bring yourself up? Resenting your parents for not being the people you needed them to be. Your brain doesn’t feel like your own anymore, tired and run down you cry for who you once were.

Sertraline

What is a skill if it cannot be shared, why sing a song if it won’t be heard, why make art if nobody cares? We live for other people so when there is no one around us why do we continue? When we are lost where do we search? The last place we left of, when did you last see yourself? In a childhood memory? As you rest your head, where does it fall? On the floor of your first home? Who were you then where you used to roam?

Pause

The audible exploration comes to a halt, forcing us to re-connect with reality, has our mindset changed? Will it? The narrator asks us to acknowledge that colours may seem brighter, and we may feel lighter, and then he asks us to imagine our childhood bedroom, the smaller version of who we once were, stares vacantly back at us as we open the door.

Letter to myself- Frank Turner

We live our lives in hindsight, wishing we could reverse time in the hope it would change our current situation, but who’s to say if we had enjoyed those days of simplicity, when a summer’s day was full of magic and the biggest stress was completing that week’s homework that anything would be different now?

The only way to change your current situation is by facing yourself and doing it differently. Find forgiveness in reflection, thank your parents for doing what they could, releasing too that they are still human, they were learning too. Sometimes reflection is the only way we can move forward realise that ‘it’s not all plain sailing’ there will be ‘times you’re in front and times that you’re failing’ but this is human and that’s all we can be.

Jennie

It’s the monotony of life you breathe then you die, trapped in a cycle trying to get by. You seek help and people wonder why, that’s just life mate, that’s the way it’s going to be. If this is normality, sell me a fantasy let me breath in some wonderland, promise me you’ll hold my hand?  Through love we escape, ‘travelling to a place where the sun and ocean kiss’ an eternal bliss surely that’s the true meaning of all this, not to work all day in a place we hate.

Let Me Down- Boy George

Enter a neon world full of potential and possibility, drink in the lights and look alive, this is the start of your dazzling new life. ‘Let Me Down’ came from Rylance’s interest in researching pop icons and understanding what makes a song a classic. 

He shared that he was listening to a lot of Boy George’s music and ended up writing a song for him to sing without realising it. The video itself pays homage to George’s career, flamboyant, a beacon paving the way to the next generation of artists.

Tackling insecurity, this track is empowering an audible armour against all those that were supposed to be there for us yet time and time again fail us, from our friends, to our families, to ourselves. Boy George’s vocals are expectedly energetic, powerful yet soothing, voice through all the noise whilst Rylance, Katie Lloyd and Rob Lally add further layers of therapeutic splendour, making this song a cinematic piece.

You’re Not Alone 

A song that reaches out to you whatever it is you’re going through, you have an audible army, marching alongside you in your ears.

This realisation can take a while, in your state you may have pushed people away but there will always be somebody to turn to, there is always someone that cares. When you see a stranger in the street crying, do you worry for them? Do you wonder what’s wrong? Go to them, offer a voice, a hand. We are not alone, ever it just takes the courage to ask for help to realise.

Anxiety Replacement Therapy

This song is a testament to transformation. When it comes to change, we believe it must be a phenomenon, having blonde hair to black, from being fat to having abs, learning the first few chords to writing a song, we celebrate change when it is instantaneous, without realising everything is gradual. The final verse to this track reflects on the album, with references to previous tracks.

“I used to worry about money now I worry about health
Wrote a letter to myself but I left it on the shelf
I’m in a burning house and I’ve gotta get out
But I’m looking out the window, it’s a long way down
I have to call Jennie ’cause I’m having weird dreams
Maybe it’s a sign of the sertraline
But I know that when I call she’ll always answer the phone
She’ll never let me down, I know I’m not alone.”

Our narrator has understood his situation, indulged in and is now trying to change it, seeking prescribed medication, reaching out to friends and looking for ways out of the burning house. Our narrator is trying to be better for themselves, because to be there for ourselves is all we can ask.

Stop

Our omniscient narrator addresses us, a refreshing taste of reality, we are awake in our nightmare now, we can leave this place.

From recently reaching number one, to being in the full throttle of their UK tour The Lottery Winners the band are gritty, colourful and raw. Reality is the core of their sentiments, reflecting on their success Rylance explained: “I always knew we’d do it the hard way. We’re from a working-class mining town in the northwest of England. We’re not from London, we don’t have famous dads. We’re just trying our best, and if people connect to our music, that’s authentic.” 

Mediative and liberating A.R.T is out now, get it here.

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