Remember last week, when Already Heard gave you 50 (that’s right, 50!) bands that you needed in your life in 2016? Prominent in that list were Kingston’s emo/pop-punk outfit Losing Sleep and, as if to reinforce the point, ‘Fear of Missing Out’ is the star witness of our defence.
And what a star it is too…
While January remains stoically miserable; an annual shitstorm of crappy weather, back to work despair and the sad realisation that the next thing to happen of any real note involves fucking pancakes (I hate pancakes), ‘Fear Of Missing Out’ is packed with so many killer hooks it’ll soon blow away those winter blues.
If you’re in any doubt, just listen to the opening salvo of ‘One Year Of Winter’ and ‘People in Glass Houses Sink Ships’. I’m well aware it’s only January, but if 2016 heralds another start to an album packed with as much bounce and fun, I’ll be genuinely astonished. It’s a one-two that begs for massive sing-alongs at summer parties and will have you bouncing around the room almost instantly.
Unsurprisingly, the rest of ‘Fear Of Missing Out’ doesn’t quite match this breath-taking opening, but the quality still remains extraordinarily high throughout. ‘Never Told You’ is another similarly infectious cut, as are the more progressive ‘Give Her Hell From Us’ and ‘Tin Can Telephones’. It’s to Losing Sleep’s credit that they don’t rely on this magic formula too often – in fact too much of a good thing would almost certainly dilute the punchiness of such songs – but it means 50% of the songs on ‘Fear Of Missing Out’ have gold standard choruses. It’s a spectacular hit rate.
Yet when Losing Sleep switch things up, they’ve still got enough nous to deliver songs that are brilliantly engaging and compelling. ‘Hesitate To Call’ is a twitchy, slow-burning effort that holds its own against the whirlwind opening blast, while ‘Meet Me In Agloe’ shows Losing Sleep can keep things interesting even when they drop the pace and play with the structure. Even when they throw in the obligatory ballad/acoustic-style number (the closing ‘I Wrote Off My Tape Deck’) – a seeming standard for bands of this ilk – they establish a new benchmark.
It all means Losing Sleep have catapulted themselves into the elite of the UK pop-punk/emo scene, delivering the finest album of the genre since Moose Blood’s ‘I’ll Keep You In Mind, From Time To Time’. If 2016 keeps this up, it should be a blast.
4.5/5
’Fear Of Missing Out’ by Losing Sleep is released on January 15th on Beach Community and Failure By Design.
Losing Sleep links: Facebook|Twitter|Bandcamp
Words by Rob Mair (@BobNightMair
