Album review: TV Priest – My Other People

The time delay between conceiving and releasing an album means that music heavily shaded by two years of lockdowns will continue to seep into the world. TV Priest’s debut Uppers was written in the heady before times and revolved around a heady swirl of chaos and noise. It made a relatively big splash in the void of unprecedented times but left the band stranded, untested and unable to tour.

Follow-up My Other People is a more restrained and reflective piece of work, informed at least in part by that shared sense of enforced ennui and frontman Charlie Drinkwater’s shored up mental health. ‘I need to sleep, so very very deeply,’ he drawls across a dirge of guitars and it sounds like he absolutely means it. Bury Me In My Shoes continues in much the same vein but with flare-ups of vibrant noise as the utilitarian chorus declares that, ‘Life only comes in flashes of greatness.’

A bone-deep weariness starts to seep in as Limehouse Cut trawls its metaphorical canals but there are moments of joy and excitement too. It Was Beautiful is described by Charlie as a love song about the past, present and future and mixes its big melodies, dirty guitar and awkward angular tics into a sort of cautious euphoria. It Was A Gift is similarly spirited, riding a pulsing beat over grinding distortion and that always poetic shambling vocal delivery.

There are still elements of The Fall in the taut rhythms and the brief but potent guitar flashes are occasionally reminiscent of Jon Spencer or J. Mascis. As a whole piece, though, My Other People sees TV Priest continue to map out their own increasingly intriguing identity. The Golden Cleric beckons.

Rating: 3/5

For fans of: IDLES, Do Nothing, Protomartyr

My Other People is released on 17 June via Sub Pop