Details: Mt. Misery, "Once Home, No Longer," limited release on red vinyl pressed by Prefect Records (2021). UK import. Limited to 250 copies made. Sold out and currently out of press in this color variant. New stock.

Description: "The stunning debut album from Mt. Misery reflects a timeless but beautiful heartbreak for fans of Real Estate, Whitney, Teenage Fanclub, and Alvvays.

It would be easy to shower Mt. Misery with the kind of shimmering west coast plaudits previously reserved for cult luminaries like Arthur Lee and Dennis Wilson, but the more prosaic truth would be that Muscle Beach and palm trees are about as far removed from the windswept headland of their hometown of Hartlepool as it’s possible to be. However, an acute sense of being and the bittersweet turbulence of life - shared by the aforementioned sun-kissed greats - gives the band’s debut album Once Home, No Longer an impressive geographical authenticity. Released on the brink of summer, the themes within this remarkable record overarch like a rainbow, with the tracks waxing and waning like sunlight shining through cracks on the pavement.

The songs reflect a timeless but beautiful heartbreak for fans of Real Estate, Whitney, and Alvvays, but under the surface, there is a mature determination to succeed that can only be cultivated in the working-class environs of a northern town. Hiding beneath the intense grey clouds that serve only to stop the freezing ocean spray escaping into the sky, Andrew, Lewis, and Ste still walk to rehearsals past the careworn shops and tired arcades in a seaside town they forgot to close. Although Once Home, No Longer may have been made in Hartlepool, its sempiternal sound isn’t constrained by grid references.

Serendipity being the band’s friend, Hartlepool’s Prefect Records were perfectly placed. Set-up to facilitate the debut release by Ex-Void, a new project from Owen and Lan of Joanna Gruesome, label head Mark Dobson (ex-The Field Mice) used to run the legendary Syndrome indie night in London in the late 1980s, which was synonymous with ‘the scene that celebrates itself’ and the fledgling careers of a whole host of bands like Blur and Ride. The DIY ethos that also extended to The Field Mice’s legendary Sarah Records label has stood Mark in good stead, although he is also keen to point out that although the label is based in the North East, it’s purely coincidental that Mt. Misery lives half a mile down the road."

Grade: M (new stock)

TRACK LISTING SIDE A:

A1. The Dreaming Days Are Over
A2. Tell Me (What's On Your Mind)
A3. In The Blink Of An Eye
A4. Taken By The Tide
A5. Lonely Pines

TRACK LISTING SIDE B:

B1. Once Home, No Longer
B2. I Was Wrong
B3. Pick Up The Phone
B4. Satellite
B5. The Thought Of Losing You