INDIEVOTION

Monday, November 18, 2024

Desperate Journalist - No Hero (2024)

Since its formation, Desperate Journalist has consistently released some of the most modernly compelling music in the renewed Post Punk genre without repeating itself from album to album, sticking the band to a sonic formula and letting it go. Throughout their discography, the band has managed to deliver something different on each album, making it more consistent than the previous one in terms of composition, instrumentation, Jo Bevan's vocals, the crucial presence of Robert's guitars or the fabulous rhythm section composed by Caz and Steve.

The feeling that the listener and loyal fans of Desperate Journalist get is that they are not a mere collection of different individuals, each with their own abilities, but a unit that works like a band should always work and that is absolutely remarkable and displayed unequivocally on all of his albums, although it seems to be most clear on “Maximum Sorrow” and particularly on “No Hero”, his most recent, majestic and great sonic leap. Album after album, the question has always been what Desperate Journalist will do next, because the previous album was already so good. And once again after the extraordinary “In Search of The Miraculous”, “Maximum Sorrow”, they moved forward with what can somehow be considered their simultaneously most ambitious, daring and mature album compared to what they did previously yet without move away from the path they have taken so far and which places them among the most renowned bands not only in the United Kingdom but throughout Europe.

In terms of the creative process, the approach to composition and the elaboration of each song with the introduction of various electronic elements (read synthesizers and drum machines) clearly acted as a turning point because the atmosphere created on Desperate Journalist's new album surpassed whatever expectations one had regarding what they would be able to produce on their fifth album of originals. The band has gained depth, the songs are more textured and there is an atmospheric density that combines perfectly with the guitars and the rhythm section. We know that when integrating a band into a musical genre like Post-Punk we are probably committing some exaggeration since, in a way, after Punk, all bands became Post-Punk in some way, although there are certainly some characteristics that help to define some bands as being more in line with the Post-Punk genre, in its classical understanding, than others.

Desperate Journalist is one of them and currently on the UK music scene and even globally they are certainly one of the most prominent representatives of the genre, as well as the band that seems to be effectively contributing to an aesthetic readjustment of Post-Punk, integrating into its creative process some aspects that have always been present in some way in this musical genre, such as electronic temptation. When listening to “No Hero”, their most recent album, this idea gains ground: we can almost identify one by one the bands that seem to have influenced the concept of this magnificent new album by Desperate Journalist. The band's most recent album demonstrates beyond any doubt that Desperate Journalist are undeniably one of the most consistent and brilliant contemporary bands because let's face it, there are certainly very few bands that can boast of having produced five practically immaculate albums over the years. which have evolved just enough so that all albums have their own identity, circumstance and temporality without sticking in an undifferentiated way with their predecessor.

In “No Hero” Desperate Journalist has produced one of the most precious, exciting, superb and lyrically important batches of music of 2024. There are ten breathtaking songs on an album that constantly begs us to play again. And with each new listen, new emotions and more enchantment. A musical treasure. The best album of the year? Most likely, yes.

INDIEVOTION RATING: 9.4/10