With no end of determination and an enduring gift for songcraft and introspective lyricism, the unbowed pioneers of 2010’s melodic alt-rock, Neon Waltz return with their first new music in three years, Send Me Down – OUT NOW. Reflecting on the dizzying peaks and deceptions of major label dealings, tour van repairs in dark lay byes, lock downs, lost band members and their undimmed love for playing the whole, crazy game together, the John O’Groats four-piece punch through doubt and release a relentless anthem to staying power.
Immersed in broadening sonic hues beneath the almost permanently light summer skies of northern Scotland, and the corresponding round-the-clock darkness of winter, the band’s second album, Honey Now, was released in September 2023. Where their arrival, all the way back in 2016, had been signalled with future, festival sundown classics such as Dreamers, Neon Waltz took a left turn into singing about “fears, loss and finding yourself” following the 2017 release of their bright debut album, Strange Hymns.
Optimism has returned beneath the veil of realism, as Send Me Down’s bass-driven, frenetic and typically hook-orientated journey unfolds, with frontman and lyricist Jordan Shearer initially putting pen to paper in a closed Edinburgh plant shop. Alone in a makeshift, temporary studio and lost to thoughts of a decade in a band, the years of music, joy and regrets tumbling over each other, the songwriter (and Neon Waltz’s resident film maker) faced finality before imagining a whole new future.
The extended wait for their second album, a wrought journey of extended distances, growing up, changing relationships and funding, came to an end with Honey Now. Sparkling singles such as A Million People, and a now rare, full UK & Ireland Tour to support the album, it ensured that their decade long efforts to connect, and remain connected to their fans, will never have been wasted.
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