Massive Champion: Transparent Lime Vinyl LP

Pre-Order Item. Release Date Subject to Change.
Label: Breakfast Records
Release Date: 14th August

The most vulgar secret in British music present their second album, riding a continental lager wave of momentum as they become the ultimate night out band for those who enjoy nasty electronic beats and glam rock boogie whilst spitting bars about the everyday drudgery of life. Genuinely hilarious, endlessly invigorating and a band who pull off that trick that only British bands like The Kinks, The Jam, Squeeze, The Streets and Oasis can do (whilst sounding unlike all those bands) in painting romance and humour in the mundanity of life but as pure weekend bangers. 

‘Massive Champion’ is the highly anticipated new album from Bristol’s Getdown Services, set for release on 14th August via Breakfast Records. The follow up to cult classic debut Crisps, it arrives alongside lead single ‘I Can’t Die Like That’ and news of the duo’s biggest UK headline tour to date, including Roundhouse on 8th December. The announcement follows Getdown Services’ debut appearance on Later... with Jools Holland earlier this week, where they performed BBC 6 Music playlisted single ‘The Radiator’, one of ‘Massive Champion’s’ genuinely irresistible thirteen tracks.

An odyssey of anarchic joy, seditious wit and boundless energy, the album finds Josh Law and Ben Sadler pushing deeper into the singular world they have been building for years, while opening up new emotional and lyrical ground. Written in green rooms, on long car journeys and in the gaps between relentless touring, it stands as their boldest and most expansive statement to date, an ode to childhood, British cultural detritus and the absurd poetry of everyday life, distilling everything that has made Getdown Services one of the most exhilarating and unpredictable bands around. In the band’s words it is “about self pity and realising that maybe all of the healing your inner child stuff you hear about isn’t actually total bollocks. Musically and lyrically I think it’s about us trying to clean up our act a bit.”

New single ‘I Can’t Die Like That’ provides the second taste of the album and is the kind of instant earworm built for festival crowds. Wildly infectious, it is quintessential Getdown Services, pairing huge hooks with the band’s perceptive and poignant lyricism. As the band explain, “‘I Can’t Die Like That’ is about the feeling of simple things becoming complicated. We thought it was interesting to think about the ways in which something as straightforward as dying can be difficult. It’s also about clinging on to feelings that comfort you but aren’t necessarily healthy.” Like much of ‘Massive Champion’, it finds catharsis in contradiction, meeting often heavy subject matter with both candour and humour.

A triumph of hard work and the grassroots scene, Getdown Services jokingly coined themselves Britain’s Best Band. With ‘Massive Champion’, it feels less like a punchline and more like a statement of intent. As their audience continues to grow exponentially both at home and across the world, they look every bit on a fast track to becoming one of the country’s biggest and most vital bands. Joyous and utterly singular, ‘Massive Champion’ feels set to soundtrack the year ahead and, very likely, many more to come.

1. Poor Bannister
2. I Can’t Die Like That
3. Probiotic
4. Cha Cha Slide
5. The Radiator
6. The Definitive Map
7. A Crazy Story
8. What’s On Your Mind?
9. Stop Living
10. No One Likes Me
11. Check The Definition
12. Lentils
13. 600 Dance Lessons