lostboy finds the sweet spot with new track, ‘Overdue’
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- August 11, 2022
There’s nothing like the immediacy of live music. Straight from vocal cords, amplifiers and drum skins, music just hits different, and Sheffield indie-rock artist lostboy’s new track, ‘Overdue’, will get you as close to that feeling as you can on a recording.
Unlike his previous Ep, ‘Love Among Angry People’, ‘Overdue’ does away with hooky guitar intros and immediately gets to work building anticipation. You can feel the sweat dripping down your spine as the chugging guitar is joined by the drums and the crowd creates a space in the middle of the dance floor. Then, as the chorus hits, and lostboy’s voice soars into the next octave, the feeling of bodies crashing into yours is so close you wouldn’t be surprised if you woke up with bruises.
Listen to lostboy’s ‘Overdue’ on Spotify
It’s this use of harmonic and dynamic contrast which really give ‘Overdue’ its power. Never letting you get too comfortable it straddles a line, like all good art, between meeting expectation and breaking it. This is where the production shines. It allows just enough space in between the waves of chorus mayhem that you just about think you’re safe, before screaming guitars and the full power of the Sheffielder’s voice come crashing back down. Then, as quickly as it started, the track is over. Not long enough to ever be boring, it leaves you craving another listen. This all makes for a perfect radio track, and with the likes of BBC 6Music, BBC Introducing, Radio X and Amazing Radio all supporting lostboy, it seems others would agree.
Lyrically too, ‘Overdue’ isn’t left wanting. While the artist himself refers to it as a song about the “frustration when you can’t (or feel like you can’t) see your mates or get out for a catch up”, it feels deeper than this. It’s references to his friend’s ‘dirty dealings’, and being searched at the door of a club, are a reflection of British youth culture. One hooked on those substances which allow an escape from the harsh realities young people in modern-day Britain face. But again, it’s this ambiguity, the line between the expected and not, that give this track the ‘magic’ which lostboy refers to in the chorus. It’s just as appropriate to sing along to with a bunch of your mates in a mosh, as it is in those reflective moments you have alone in your bedroom.
“I wanted to really capture those feelings of frustration when you can’t (or feel like you can’t) see your mates or get out for a catch up. Sometimes things get in the way; be that your daily grind, covid or just that you don’t feel up to it. Being back at festivals for the first time this year as a punter has shown me how full of madness everyone is to be back with the people they call home. I wanted to write this song for them.”
lostboy
Coming off the back of his previous EP ‘Love Among Angry People’, released just this year, ‘Overdue’ is no departure: full of the same cutting guitars and anthemic chorus’. It does, however, feel like progress. It’s a tight and sharp indie-rock track which draws you in close, pushes you around, and gets you very, very excited to see him perform it live.
lostboy will be performing two massive headline shows at the Leadmill in Sheffield on the 4th of November, and another at Exchange in Bristol on the 17th. Get along and get sweaty.
Listen to more by lostboy on Spotify
For more on lostboy, check out his website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. If you enjoyed this, check out more reviews from IAMUR here… You might just find your new favourite artist!
