If every picture tells a story, then perhaps the album cover for The Hanging Stars‘ latest release, Just A Day (June 19th, 2026, via Loose Music), is perhaps something of a statement of intent because it features a simple photo of the four current band members standing against a dusty cornflower blue backdrop.
A line-up change at the end of 2024 resulted in a more stripped down version of the band with a quartet of Richard Olson (vocals and guitar), Patrick Ralla (guitar), Paul Milne (bass) and Paulie Cobra (drums) – this being his last recording before a prolonged sabbatical, his live replacement for live tours being Charlie Salvidge who has played previously with the bands TOY, Proper Ornaments, and Great Silkie.
Their sixth proper release in ten years – their seventh if you include the brilliantly fruitful collaboration with Bonnie Dobson on the Dreams album last year – it’s the third album The Hanging Stars have recorded at Edwyn Collins’ Clashnarrow Studios in the Scottish Highlands, this leaner version of the band accompanied by a change of direction with producer Gerard Love, one-third of Teenage Fanclub’s celebrated songwriting trio, helping the band strip things back to their essence – setting aside the horns and pedal steel from previous outings – while he also contributes vocals and arrangements, alongside longstanding collaborator, Sean Read, who engineered and co-produced the record.
If The Hanging Stars have adopted something of a back-to-basics philosophy with this latest record, then it’s still recognisably of a piece with their original desire to create a psychedelic country space-rock dynamic. Opener, All Your Yesterdays, is classic jangle pop with something of a whimsical yet optimistic theme, its insistent hooks and four-part harmonies encouraging us to live in – and for – the moment.
Its follow-up, the second single from the album, The Glasshouse, has a more up-tempo drive, with its insistent guitar riff and twelve-string guitar very much to the fore. One of the best songs Olson’s written, it treads a more political path, territory he’s explored previously on songs like I Don’t Want To Feel So Bad Anymore and You’re So Free. Beneath the song’s surface shimmer and yearning to experience the lives of the rich and famous at something of a remove, it simultaneously excoriates the greed that hides beneath that lifestyle’s glossy, ephemeral exterior:
“I wanna sail upon your crystal ship/I wanna taste the fine wine that you sip/I wanna slip inside your house made of desire”. Olson further explores the inequities of wealth disparity more obliquely with the song Run Run Run, its spidery guitar work and sixties-inspired organ conjuring a somewhat trippy feel.
The first single on the record, Sister Of The Sun, shows a more restrained side of the band’s character; its vocal runs reminiscent of an ’90s indie classic, the song radiating a blissful cosmic energy ideally suited to its title. On other songs, such as Let It Slide and Think I’ll Be Alright – with its Stone Roses-sounding riff – Olson indicates something of a maturer acceptance of the wisdom gained in the face of adversity and betrayal: “You can kiss me goodbye, because I’ll be fine”.
Patrick Ralla’s increasing influence on the band is keenly felt on his composition, Keep On (Making Me Wait), its chunky, fuzzed-out guitar riff accompanied by the “pa-pa-pa-pa” sweet backing vocal melodies somewhat redolent of The Beach Boys. Paul Milne also shows he’s no slouch in the songwriting department, with his country-flecked, chugging, Flying Burrito Brothers-influenced number, Show Me The Way.
Big Red Car is Olson’s favourite song on the album, and with good reason. Its opening chords are not dissimilar to those on Let Me Dream of You from the band’s Hollow Heart album. A standout country-gospel-flavoured track, it’s a genuine high point on the record, perhaps rivalled by the gorgeous Time Is Nothing. The latter is something of a dedication to Gerard Love’s Lightships solo project. The song has a lovely elegiac quality, its lush arpeggiated chords, beautiful melodies and glorious vocal harmonies perfectly evincing Olson’s dedication to the cosmic country and folk-rock sounds of 1970s acts like The Byrds and guitar-pop pioneers Teenage Fanclub from the 1990s.
Ten years on from their debut release, Over The Silvery Lake, Richard Olson continues to demonstrate his facility for tapping into the most memorable tunes with catchy melodies, while bringing to bear on Just A Day the wisdom and empathy that only life experience – with its various setbacks and failures – brings. Just A Day actually proves the opposite of its title – it looks like they’re in it for the long haul.
Just A Day (June 19th, 2026) Loose Music
The Hanging Stars UK Tour Dates:
22-05-2026 Leek – Leek Arts Festival
11-06-2026 London – Third Man Records
29-08-2026 Stanford Hall – The Long Road Festival
04-09-2026 Sheffield – Yellow Arch
07-10-2026 Ipswich – The Church
08-10-2026 Hull – The New Adelphi
09-10-2026 Newcastle – The Cluny 2
10-10-2026 Glasgow – Mono
11-10-2026 Manchester – Night & Day Café
23-10-2026 St. Leonards – The Piper
24-10-2026 Brighton – The Brunswick
31-10-2026 Dorking – St Mary’s Church
05-11-2026 Darlington – The Forum
06-11-2026 Nottingham – The Old Cold Store
07-11-2026 Norwich – Norwich Arts Centre
13-11-2026 London – St Mathias Church
15-11-2026 Portsmouth – The Wedgewood Rooms