Reverend and The makers release sizzling new single, High.

Why feel low when you can feel good?

Jon McClure, frontman of Reverend the Makers captured in Sheffield by Steve Schofield

A soul filled symphony, takes you back to lounging on a beach in summer High, by Reverend and the Makers, is the track we all need to smoke to escape these winter blues. (Don’t smoke, it’ll decrease how long you can listen to this banger for)

The heat this single brings burns with social commentary, showing us a clear world view. It sets diehard fans a challenge, demonstrating the sound of Rev cannot be pinned down or pigeonholed. Ever experimental this track lends itself to a blend of funk and classic soul. The psychedelic synths could almost convince a listener that everything is good, we are floating, light, above it all, but listen closer between the fluffy smoke clouds. This is an immersion into a haunted psyche. 

The pressure of one’s own potential can crush us, we are in the graveyard of who we could have been. Lead singer, Jon McClure laments, referencing his previous track heavy weight champion of the world, who he may have felt he could have been/ who he was in his youth, when he confesses, he never was that guy. The person you wanted to be is merely a watercolour daydream, a drug induced trip you bought the wrong ticket for.

It’s insightful, poetic and foreboding. Why try to change when you can escape it? Life is dark, we lose, we burn out, we breakdown, give it our all and get none. No one will blame you for needing a vice. So, get high, keep tripping over who you could have been instead of trying to be that person. Once again, these legends encapsulate the constant battle between what is and what could have been perfectly.

Or perhaps I am thinking too deeply into it all and it is simply about having a good time, enjoying the heat and being in love, after all Jon has described it as being about “lazing around on a sunny day with your lover getting stoned”. Our narrator has come to terms with who is and forgotten who he is not, for if we always try to be something else we undermine the achievements this version of us has met.

Either way you interpret the single it is undoubtedly set to get you BOUNCIN at their upcoming gigs!

After a 4-year hiatus, Reverend and the makers are set to tour the UK in 2023. The gigs will run from 2nd February until 17th February 2023 hitting venues in Brighton, Northampton, Cardiff, Norwich, Liverpool, Birmingham (sold out), Bristol, London (sold out), Glasgow, Newcastle & Manchester before concluding with a sold out homecoming show in Sheffield on February 17th. Get your tickets quick!

High is the second track to be announced from the band’s upcoming album Heatwave in The Cold North which is set to be out on April 28th, 2023. You can pre-order it here

Follow my TikTok to see the moment I almost got a photo with Jon.

Ren makes music

And you just have to hear it

Ren

In the latest instalment of Ren’s musical museum he gives us what we want by taking us on a walking tour of the 90s.

Ren’s new track echoes the likes of Fatboy Slim’s weapon of choice, The beastie boys, and kriss kross. The iconic influence of these industry legends and the sprinting of references to populate provide a peaceful place for a listener to just bask in the songs lyricism and have a good time. There is that much to explore that current time fades away and you’re back to bomber jackets and slip dresses, sipping snapple with your Mp3 in.

The power, the party and the revolution hosted by the 90s finds a home again in this track which begins with a bombshell of a verse. The jazz elements compliment the groovy guitar riff that give this track Ren’s distinctive twang. Each verse so individual it defies all genres leaving only the simplest message to resonate with a listener that this song gives us what we want, and what we need, just a bloody good time.

What you want MV

Filmed in the hotspots of Brighton, the video also nods to the days of The Big Push(Ren’s former band) and busking which lead him to be signed by Sony records in 2010. The simplicity of a setting tied with the cinematic nature of Ren’s storytelling make for a frenetic atmosphere from a live crowd. The passion and charm and charisma of Ren adds an extra layer to the usually foreboding nature of his songs, especially when the vibrant streets were set as a backdrop to Ren’s earlier narrative; Jenny’s tale.

Jenny’s Tale.

Released in 2019 the track takes us to the dark streets of london where we observe an unfortunate meeting between two grotesque characters; Jenny and a thief who goes by the name Screech. Ren stumbles around a desolate brighton setting the grim scene with each strum of his guitar strings. An omniscient narrator, he sets the stage. The guitar picks up pace when the situation starts to escalate as Screech demands;

“Give me all your money bitch, give it to me
If you co-operate, then you’ll soon be free
I want your purse, your phone
Don’t fucking look at me
I mean it bitch, are you listening to me?”
Jenny freezes, statue like, a lady shaped stalactite
Fear like liquid nitrogen in the dark night
She tried to find strength to move
But stayed as still as a statue in high heeled shoes

The puncture these lyrics leave you with will ring round your head for a while. The weight of lyrical talent in this one verse sets the tone for the entirety of Ren’s track list. He is a trailblazer, shedding hope to those of us who may not be able to afford PR, or costly camera equipment or have the laptop for high tech editing software, he shows us that with passion, patience and perseverance we can produce a song that will reach 1 million views on youtube-which Jenny’s tale did.

The final instalment in this tale came earlier this year in the form of Violets tale. The track’s opening is unsettling, a Spanish infused guitar and interruptive snapping strings bring us to a scene where a woman is ‘fighting to stay alive’. Once again this haunting tale paint Ren as a one man musical.An additional punch in this track comes in the form of the video itself. We see Ren, not in his usual exuberant Brighton backdrop but in a sterile blue hospital gown, picking his guitar from his bed. Ren was diagnosed with lyme disease 2016, spending most of his time bed bound and isolated, his songs allowed him to walk the streets again, setting scenes and and chasing dreams despite being dropped by his record label. You can buy Violet’s tale here.

Ren remains triumphant producing bangers and stunning listeners time and time again with his wordplay and banter. He appeals to all with his transcendent ability to echo old-time quality classic with his own acuity.

Check out my TikTok! and don’t forget to follow me on insta to keep up to date with new posts!

Not Another Rockstar- Maisie Peters is back.

With one blondie dropping a late night bombshell of an album (stay tuned), let’s not forget another blonde. Maisie Peters, truly a brunette, is back and this time she’s got a rockstar boyfriend.

Not Another Rockstar

Recently we joined her on the floor of a photoshoot backdrop, wiping our eyes wondering why we were not good enough for a boy that made us perfect to them.Resonating with the lyrics ‘sat here in your favourite dress’ understanding that we make ourselves up for other people. All authenticity airbrushes bout of us before it’s had time to fill our edges.That young love belief that creeps into our early adulthood that tries to convinces us that if we replicate what they want then we will be enough for them to stay. The truth is if they didn’t want you at first, they wouldn’t want you anyway. You were always good enough but you can’t stop someone from changing their mind. Here of course I am talking about Good Enough.

Maisie Peters Good Enough

She then went blonde, revenge a new hairstyle. Which lead her to here with the release of her Not another rockstar video. A revenge hairstyle and rebellion boyfriend, Peters speaks to that 17 year old in all of us trying to find themselves without realising they are searching in other people instead of inside themselves, I’m 21 and I still haven’t found her.

Maisie Peters

While Good Enough was an emotional ballad to listen to as you cry in the bathroom mirror before falling to the floor, Not Another Rockstar sends you straight to the dance floor, you grab your girls and yell the opening verse; “Pinky promised I was quitting, pinky promised that I wouldn’t love someone if they didn’t I am a girl with big ambitions, but did i listen?”

This punkish attitude echoes the altruism imbued in her previous 2021 banger cate’s Brother that saw her guitar shred all over TikTok’s for you page. This Rockstar rebel is so intoxicating that we get addicted to the lawlessness, a game of spot the different in a line up, all the lovers look the same, will this cycle ever end? Peters echoes this feral ferocity in backstage dressing room, recalling her previous ode to youth, shouting into a hairbrush microphone.

This love is chaotic but its yours and he lets you know he could have had anyone else, but lucky you, you’re who he chose and you should worship him for that. He’ll make you forgive him when he crosses a line and you find him later in a police row. The pacing of this song does sound like a police chase, you can almost hear the sirens as Pters and her rockstar run through busy streets and behind stage doors.

What’ striking about these scenes than other than the paparazzis, perceived only though camera flashes, this video has only three characters, Peters, rockstar and us. We watch, hepessly as this disorder and dissary unfolds in front of us, in awe of our blonde protagonist in her bright coat and dark shades hoping that this time this boy will be good to her.

Overall this video is a fun, mosh pit must have that becomes a colourful chaotic backdrop to a song full of hard-hitting lyrics and difficult scenarios that depict a narcissistic anti-hero and helps yet aware lover who trails after him as he runs from himself.