Headsticks

Headsticks – The Best Thing On TV (Out 1st June 2025)
Self-produced, self-assured, and teetering gloriously on the edge of chaos.

Stoke-on-Trent’s loudest prophets of punk-folk fury are back—and they’ve brought the end of the world with them. The Best Thing On TV isn’t just an album title; it’s practically a dare. “Go on then, try and top this.”

Opening with Pantomime, the lads knock thrice before kicking the bloody door in. Powered by a pummelling percussion section and a lead guitar squealing like it just stepped on a plug, it’s less of an opener and more of a musical mugging. Legs will twitch. Feet will betray you. Even your nan might skank.

Keyboard Warriors is a sonic slap to the smug mugs hiding behind their avatars. Punk pace meets ska spice in a toe-tapping tirade against the Weekend Woke and the Hashtag Heroes. It’s biting, brisk, and bonkers in all the best ways.
Next up is On Top Of The World—a ballad teetering between hope and heartbreak. Piano and acoustic guitar weave together in a gentle, melancholic embrace, tailor-made for staring out the window with a warm drink and a creeping sense that life might just be passing you by. “Who’s gonna catch me if I fall?” they ask—and the question lingers like steam on the glass.

God Song sees frontman Andrew Tranter taking theology out for a pint and giving it a proper grilling. A dream dialogue with the divine, full of dramatic delivery and a riff sharp enough to shave with. Somehow, it manages to feel like both a sermon and a mosh pit. Amen, and pass the earplugs.

Ashes is folk-fuelled fury dressed as an acoustic lament. It’s an eco-anthem for the end times, with lyrics that could double as a eulogy for the planet—etched in smoke and sorrow. “Ashes to dust…” hits different when you’re watching the forest burn from your living room.

Now, onto the title track: (Don’t Spoil) The Apocalypse. This is the one that grabs you by the collar, drags you onto the sofa, and forces you to laugh while the world crumbles. If Dead Kennedys and Orwell collaborated on a stage play and raised it on irony and rage, it might sound a lot like this. Jello Biafra would surely nod in unsettling approval.

There’s No One Left slows things down for a beautifully bleak number about isolation and interpersonal implosion. Less “doom and gloom,” more “ouch, my soul.” If you’ve ever had a falling-out with literally everyone, this one’s for you.

But before you spiral into despair, along marches Each And Every Day to slap you round the face with a bassline that belongs in a sweaty basement gig. It thunders forward like a train fuelled by fury and flat lager. “Dear old England is dying of boredom,” they say. Not with this track blaring through the speakers, it’s not.

Dark Waters dives into theatrical territory with another piano-led ballad. It’s brooding, dramatic, and just a bit beautiful in that way only something slightly sinister can be. Think: Leonard Cohen with a hangover and a guitar.

St. George’s Infirmary delivers an emotional elegy that could soundtrack the closing credits of a crumbling empire. But buried beneath the sorrow is a spark—a call to arms, or at least a call to care. Revolutionary melancholy at its finest.

I Keep You Alive is where things get properly personal. A booze-soaked confessional with the sort of lyrical gut-punch that lingers long after the song ends. It’s not about love—it’s about revenge via memory. Cathartic? Yes. Uplifting? Absolutely not. Brilliant? Without a doubt.

And finally… There’s A Parsnip On The Pool Table. Yes, really. It’s funky, it’s freaky, and it’s frankly fantastic. A spoken-word groove monster that somehow makes sense as a closer. It’s as if Ian Dury stumbled drunk into a greengrocer’s, picked up a parsnip, and declared it his muse.

The Best Thing On TV is a heady, hearty cocktail of fury, folk, and full-blown theatrical angst. It’s a beautifully bleak stroll through our collective apocalypse, delivered with a grin, a groan, and a guitar solo. Headsticks have crafted a collection that dances on the edge of disaster—and makes it sound like a damn good time.

Sure, it’s dark. Sure, it’s doomy. But it’s also devilishly clever, fiercely catchy, and not afraid to laugh in the face of the abyss. If Mephistopheles formed a band and got signed by the ghost of Joe Strummer, it might sound like this. And honestly? That’s the best thing on any screen.

Track List:
Pantomime
Keyboard Warriors
On Top Of The World
God Song
Ashes
(Don't Spoil) The Apocalypse
There's No One Left
Each And Every Day
Dark Waters
St. George's Infirmary
I Keep You Alive
There's A Parsnip On The Pool Table