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<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAhhhhh, Towers Of London, the band whose singer once proudly proclaimed they could dick on the Sex Pistols are back. Returning with their first new music in ages, and the first to feature the band\u2019s re-united original \u2018classic\u2019 line up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes siree, after those well received support shows with The Wildhearts back in 2019, Donny, Dirk, Rev, Snell, and Tommy are finally back with \u2019Yet To Be\u2019, an all-new 5 track EP that\u2019s coincidently released in the same month as, (and sixteen years after) their classic \u2018Blood Sweat & Towers\u2019 debut first made them the band many seemed to love to hate back in the noughties.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll include myself in that category as I\u2019ve had my own love\/hate relationship with them through the years too, initially catching them in Cardiff Barfly around 2005 and absolutely loathing them, Towers then seemed to end up supporting every band I was going to see, before around the time of the release of their debut I finally \u201cgot it\u201d and simply couldn\u2019t get enough of them. Then, just as quickly as the band they so famously thought they could dick on, they were out of the spotlight and releasing the way too Indie leaning. \u2018Fizzy Pop\u2019 (the band\u2019s second album), and whilst that record does indeed still have some fans out there, without Rev and Snell in their ranks they just weren\u2019t the same incendiary live act, and without that underlying tension that seemed to be the band\u2019s catalyst for musical catastrophe, the band slowly withdrew into the shadows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Somewhere they then ended up spending quite a bit of their time, working with various other musicians exploring potential new avenues for the band to pursue musically and releasing such singles as \u2018Shake It\u2019 and \u2018Shot In The Dark\u2019 along the way. Then in 2019 news finally broke that the original line up was getting back together for one last crack at this thing called the music biz. Returning as a much more \u2018grounded\u2019 group of people, the thing that perhaps struck me most about those Wildhearts support shows was just how much each member appeared to have grown up during their time apart, and Donny in particular seemed genuinely humbled not only by the enthusiastic reception they received night after night but also by just how powerful the band still sounded after all those years away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Yet To Be\u2019 picks up on the spirit of bonhomie from those reunion shows and actually includes a couple of the tunes from that set too, however it\u2019s the track that\u2019s recently been included in TNT\u2019s \u2018Animal Kingdom\u2019 series that gets the EP out the starting blocks and for me it’s perhaps the track I actually like least here. That\u2019s not to say it\u2019s a bad song, it\u2019s just that to my ears the anthemic \u2018Jump\u2019 actually sounds like \u2018Fizzy Pop\u2019 era Towers colliding headlong with the Rev\u2019s post-Towers band The Howling, and whereas elsewhere within this EP elements of electronica are used to superb effect to ultimately add a new dynamic to the Towers sound, here, whilst the synthy tribal beat is insanely catchy, it doesn\u2019t really make me want to err jump\u2026not like \u2018Get Yourself Outta Here\u2019 anyway. Initially premiered on the Wildhearts tour, this is the Towers of London sound I first fell in love with, a ferocious slice of guitar rock, complete with one-finger Stooges piano and a sneering chorus, this track alone should have the band\u2019s diehard fans drinking, fighting and fucking like there teenage-selves all over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Likewise, \u2018Free Your Love\u2019, the other track that was aired live back in 2019, which has a kind of \u2018Towers Waltz\u2019 stop\/start feel about it, and possesses a soaring middle 8 that shows just how much the band has also matured in the songwriting department. Something that becomes abundantly clear when \u2018Push It The Same Way\u2019 chugs in on a powerpop riff to die for. This is easily my favourite song of the five on offer here, and whilst there are hints of the Towers of old during the chorus, it\u2019s the use of the aforementioned synths during the verses that really do make this song a true work of genius, and if this is the sound of things to come from the band then, just like Noddy, I\u2019m all (big) ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Amazing\u2019 which ends the EP is another Towers songwriting curveball, as it somehow manages to remind me of Blur, Abba, Ozzy and U2 all at once, yet it\u2019s still immediately recognisable as Towers Of London, and the chorus on this one really is, ahem, amazing in its simplicity, and as well know now, sometimes less can indeed be more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
True to Towers\u2019 form \u2018Yet To Be\u2019 surprised me, so much so I initially hated it, and now (after a day of playing it non-stop) I absolutely love it, however, as it\u2019s only available on streaming platforms at the moment, who really knows what\u2019s next? Will we get to finally hear the third album, or get to see the long overdue Towers\u2019 documentary, and with the UK live scene slowly returning to as normal as it can be right now, what about a coast to coast tour to promote it all?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whatever happens next, I can\u2019t fucking wait!\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stream Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n