Photo Credit: Dale Gallagher
Later this month, Glaswegian quintet Departures release their new album, ‘Death Touches Us, From The Moment We Begin To Love’. With it’s cathartic spine, the album combines with indie-rock and hardcore elements with stunning results. As it ebbs and flows, ‘Death Touches Us…’ takes you on a captivating, emotional rollercoaster.
Having toured all over the UK, the US and beyond, Departures have played with a range of bands and gained plenty of road miles under their belt.
We asked the band to compile a list of their favourite songs to listen to whilst out on the road. From cult classics to personal favourites to emerging acts, Departures’ tour tracks has it all.
Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear The Reaper
Sean: I first heard ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ in a film when I was younger, and I was instantly hooked on the guitar riff. I can probably hear vague hints of our style in that when I listen back.
Misery Signals – Five Years
Sean: ‘Five Years’ by Misery Signals is one of the best songs from one of my favourite albums. There are still not many heavy albums that come close to that 10 years later.
Earl Sweatshirt – Grief
Sean: ‘Grief’ is just a great song, and something that’s still in my rotation at the moment. That album is great for driving late at night.
Kano – Ps and Qs
Sean: ‘Ps and Qs’ is the song that got me into grime.
Trapped Under Ice – Street Lights
Does this song contain the hardest riff of all time? Possibly. Will you accidentally mosh your kitchen to bits if you listen to it at home? Absolutely!
Chief Keef – Love Sosa
Sean: I mean…just listen to this song if you haven’t already.
American Football – Never Meant
James: Quite simply, ‘Never Meant’ by American Football is for me one of the best songs ever written. That whole record has been a staple for such a long time now, I know I’ll never get tired of it.
Dua Lipa – Be The One
James: I don’t know too much about Dua Lipa at the moment, but she seems like she’s going to make a great pop star. I enjoy a good pop song and ‘Be The One’ will be one of the singles of the year for me.
JME – 96 Fuckries
James: I’ve loved JME for so long and I still listen to ‘Integrity’ regularly, it’s just so well put together, and his lyrics are so great. This one is an older song he did a new version of, but its still so good.
Nothing – A.C.D (Abscessive Compulsive Disorder)
James: ‘Tired Of Tomorrow’ will have to be in my albums of the year. I listened to it solidly for about two weeks. I enjoyed ‘Guilty of Everything’ a lot, but this new one is just something else. Couldn’t really pick a favourite, but ‘ACD’ is a good representation of the record.
The Smiths – Back To The Old House (Hatful of Hollow Version)
James: When asked what my favourite Smiths song is I always answer with this. It contains everything that I love about them, and it’s dripping in nostalgia, which is what appeals to me the most. Also the story that goes with the writing of this song is pretty great – that Johnny Marr had recorded the acoustic guitar onto a tape, and gave the tape to Morrissey with a note on it that said “Don’t fuck this up”. He must have listened to him.
Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer
Andy: I listen to this song every time I go on a night out, it’s like a ritual for me. Plus, it’s an absolute smasher.
Oasis – Whatever
Andy: This was the first rock and roll song I was properly exposed to. It was on Smash Hits 95 (as far as I remember), which also featured such delights as ‘You Sure Do’ by Strike and ‘Reach Up’ by Perfecto Allstars. My brother bought ‘What’s The Story (Morning Glory)’’ when it was released, and I stole it from him about two weeks later.
Balance & Composure – Stonehands
Andy: This became my favourite Balance song after we toured with them. Regardless of what I was doing every night, I’d always make time to stop and listen.
Comeback Kid – All In A Year
Andy: First song from my favourite Comeback Kid record. I’m also pretty sure it was my Myspace name for a brief period of time.
The 1975 – Me
Andy: Just because it’s an amazing song.
Polyphia – Finale
Danny: Our tour driver Kaz showed me this band a while ago, and I’ve listened to this record approximately 6000 times since them. This song is just absolutely beautiful from start to finish, and the technical ability and skill with arrangements the guitarists show off is honestly sickening for their age. I doubt I’ll ever get bored of it.
Minus The Bear – Pachucca Sunrise
Danny: ‘Menos El Oso’ is one of my favourite albums of all time. Even today, listening to it instantly transports me back to hearing it for the first time. It’s been the soundtrack to so many points in my life that I can’t pick a favourite, so “the single” will have to do.
Morrissey – Speedway
Danny: In my opinion, ‘Vauxhall and I’ is Morrissey’s finest moment, and ‘Speedway’ is my very-very-close-to-Hold On To Your Friends favourite on it. If you can’t hear how much I’ve ripped this record off with the music in this band, then I guess I’ve done my job well.
Tycho – Awake
Danny: Someone at work told me to listen to this band, I then told James how great they were and apparently he’d been telling me to listen to them for months and I just hadn’t listened to him. This whole record can make me go from stressed to calm in about 15 seconds. It’s like sitting on a desert island watching the sun go down in a song.
Rustie – Raptor
Danny: This is a DJ from Glasgow that we’ve all been listening to for years now. His album ‘Glass Swords’ was incredible, then when ‘Raptor’ came out it really was a collection of everyone going “holy shit have you heard this??”. This song sounds absolutely XXXXXXL through headphones full blast.
Hudson Mowhawke – Brand New World
‘Valhalla’ in a song. Makes you feel like you’re ascending to heaven.
Cascada – What Hurts The Most
This is on absolutely every time we’re driving anywhere. If we’ve arrived at a show and this hasn’t been blasted through the van’s speakers, then something’s gone so wrong.
Little Richard – Long Tall Sally
Because it’s in Predator.
John Parr – St. Elmos Fire / John Farnham – The Voice
Because we cannot get enough of anthemic 80’s power ballads – we could create a whole playlist of those alone.
Slipknot – (Sic)
This song is here because not only is it just absolutely amazing, we used to cover this at shows when we first started out. Thankfully no footage of that exists anywhere.
‘Death Touches Us, From The Moment We Begin To Love’ by Departures is released on July 29th on Holy Roar Records and No Sleep Records.