Working Men’s Club today shared ‘Ploys,’ the latest track to be taken from their recently announced second album Fear Fear. The album was produced by Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, MIA, Tricky) and will be released on 15th July via Heavenly Recordings. ‘Ploys’ follows 6Music A-listed lead single ‘Widow’ and the follow-up, ‘Circumference’.
“When we talk of the times/we talk in the past tense.” – Syd
‘Ploys’ is three minutes of hypnosis via a riff that could easily have blasted out as a Blackburn rave signal back in the day and a lyric that seems to document a disaffection, the kind one might feel emerging blinking into the sunlight at 3am.
The track is accompanied by a visually stunning video directed by acclaimed artist / filmmaker Edwin Burdis featuring Jamaican international weightlifter Chloe Whylie.
Talking about the video Edwin said, “When we heard the album I wanted to be involved immediately. It was a good opportunity to work with the artist/hybrid athlete Whylie and create a meeting of feminine meets masculine in an EDM-world.”
After this spring’s debut shows in America and a triumphant appearance at this year’s Great Escape, the band recently announced a series of intimate shows, in conjunction with some of the best independent record stores in the UK on album release week – tickets HERE. The band have a summer of festivals before major tours to UK, Europe & US in the autumn. Full list of live shows below.
🏋️♀️ WATCH THE VIDEO HERE 🏋️♀️
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Songs created in the shadow of terror and loss, but that crackle and pop with defiance Fear Fear is a record made for agitating and dancing, for heart and soul, for here, now and tomorrow. It’s a record that explores juxtaposition; that of life and death, acceptance and isolation, environment and humanity, hope and despair, the real world and the digital world. That top to bottom rigour, the complete vision is what makes the second album from Working Men’s Club such a stunning and unique achievement.
Their critically acclaimed self-titled debut album, released in summer 2020, was the sound of singer and songwriter Syd Minsky-Sargeant processing a teenage life in Todmorden in the Upper Calder Valley. He was 16 when he wrote some of those songs, now 20, he had to get up and out of the Valley. “The first album was mostly a personal documentation lyrically, this is a blur between personal and a third-person perspective of what was going on.” Fear Fear documents the last two years. Yes, there is bleakness – but there is also hope and empathy. “I like the contrast of it being happy, uplifting music and really dark lyrics. It’s not a minimal record, certainly compared to the first one. That’s because there’s been a lot more going on that needed to be said.”
Making the busy feel finessed and the dreadful feel magical – Fear Fear manages those feats, and then some. Or, as Syd Minksy-Sargeant puts it: “We just set out to make the best-sounding album we could.”
⭐️ PRE-ORDER FEAR FEAR HERE ⭐️
The album will be available for DL, CD plus regular and limited edition on pink and blue vinyl.
To celebrate the albums release, a run of in-store events are taking place across the UK in July ahead of summer festival shows.
UK Tour dates:
8th July – UK | Primal Scream support at Halifax Piece Hall
15th July – Manchester | Music Glue: White Hotel*
17th July – Leeds | Jumbo: Brudenell Social Club*
18th July – Bristol | Rough Trade Bristol*
19th July – Kingston | Banquet Records – Pryzm*
20th July – Brighton| Resident: Komedia*
21th July – London | Rough Trade East*
22nd July – UK | Tramlines Festival
23rd July – UK | Blue Dot Festival
29th July – UK | Kendall Calling
*Instores and outstores
