Catfish And The Bottlemen

Catfish And The Bottlemen’s long anticipated return with a track that favours delivering a message over song quality. It’s been five years since Catfish And The Bottlemen last released new music. During that time we’ve experienced Covid and lockdown, which would make you think that frontman Van McCann would’ve had plenty of time to write a wealth of material for future releases.

However, the lyrics in this song suggest that it was written recently. Rumours swirled about Catfish’s return after it was suddenly announced that they would be headlining Reading And Leeds Festival. “When I’ve headlined Leeds, I’ll be back, my friend”. This song is to address the fans queries but this line leaves more questions than answers. The use of ‘I’ instead of ‘We’ in these lyrics is an interesting one, because it is still unknown for certain exactly who features within the band's lineup. Guitarist Johnny Bond took to social media to announce that he had left the band due to the relationships becoming “Dysfunctional”. This track also has a lack of a powerful lead guitar driving through it, which we’ve become very accustomed to in Catfish songs. This implies that Bond is still absent, and with drummer Bob Hall now performing in his new group Hearts, we can only assume that it is Bassist Benji Blakeway, and Van McCann left.

The most relevant lyrics of the song are aimed to voice a sense of frustration for anyone questioning the band's passion. “Save analysing the lies for the guys who’ve got the time for it” and “Could’ve called it a night but there’s too much fight in that heart” are a couple of examples of this. The song builds throughout the verse and pre-chorus. But by the time the chorus arrives it feels flat, leaving big spaces and a sense of incompleteness. This makes sense for the first Chorus, but by the time the outro arrives and the song finishes, you’re left wanting a lot more.

However, it seems that a new album is confirmed, and Catfish fans won’t have to wait too long for more new (albeit old) music. With Record Store Day approaching, the band are re-releasing debut album The Balcony with three unreleased tracks to celebrate the ten year anniversary. This song was never meant to blow up the charts, or to leave their mark in songwriting history, but to announce that they are back.