The last time the chamber-pop sounds of Brighton’s The Miserable Rich greeted us on an album was through the ghostly stories of their 2011 third album, Miss You In The Days. After a substantial hiatus, the band have regrouped for their fourth album. Their new album’s title, ‘Overcome’, hints at the trauma and testament to deep friendship and love that underpins the album’s creation and is due for release on their own label, Rags To Ruins, on 2nd February 2024.
According to the press, the album was largely recorded at the five-piece’s various home studios by James de Malplaquet (vocals), Jim Briffett (guitars, piano), Will Calderbank (cello, keyboards, piano), Rhys Lovell (double bass) and Martin Deering (drums) with production assistance and mastering from Lotte Lindenberg’s Wolfgang Gottlieb. It also features guest appearances from Alabaster de Plume, Love Supreme Jazz Festival co-founder Jack Kendon (trumpet, vocals), Dan Cartwright (saxophone), Miserable Rich co-founder – also of The Leisure Society, and formerly Hope of The States and Mumford & Sons – Mike Siddell (violin), Jennifer Left, Kelly Barnes and Bex Fidler (vocals).
For their uptempo single, Crows, this often maligned bird is instead revered for its resourcefulness – the song’s dystopian birdland was initially envisioned by the band’s Will Calderbank, vocalist James de Malplaquet began to wonder what a conversation with crows might sound like and took a deep-dive into their curious ways to understand them more. As de Malplaquet explains:
“Will had the idea of crows taking over the world and clearing up when humans have messed everything up and gave me the last line of the chorus to work the rest of the lyrics from. I did some research about crows and – woah – they are amazing. I decided to make it a kind of conversational style thing about exactly how amazing they are. I was visiting Sweden recently where I heard they are being trained to pick up cigarette buts, so I suppose this song is already coming true. A dark kind of hope.”
I’m a bird lover and have always been fascinated by the crow family – the playful Jackdaw, their acrobatic group play in high winds and the solitary morning call of a raven on an early morning woodland walk…I recommend Mark Cocker’s ‘Crow Country’, whose pastoral non-fiction ‘prose poem’ delves into the lives of these complex birds…a reminder that this land is not ours – it’s one we cohabit with thousands of other species.
The accompanying video was compiled and edited by Marc Biedel.
The band also recently shared a music video for Quietly, described by them as “a little pocket rocket”, it’s a song whose sparse and starry acoustic guitar beginnings soon erupt into a vibrant display of cascading violin sections, ebullient percussion, and stirring guest vocals courtesy of Jennifer Left. :
Pre-Order Overcome: https://themiserablerich.com/