Loserdom: Transparent Vinyl LP

Pre-Order Item. Release Date Subject to Change.
Label: Safe Suburban Home
Release Date: 1st May

Ben Auld's 'Loserdom' has come around like the greatest of meds for my dopamine thirsty brain because these ripping dueling Thin Lizzy guitars, Grand Prix era Teenage Fanclub, Replacements, Tony Molina power pop bangers with wee picked folk breaks are filling up my cup so high it's overspilling. Look, this stuff is absolute catnip for a DIY power pop obsessive like myself and having been given a preview of this album, I can confirm this is the best in it's field for a very long time. 

Ben Auld is a power-pop artist out of Norwich, UK. His band is made up of close friends that are active in the local scene. It features Duncan Baker on drums, Conor Etteridge on guitar, and George Witty on bass. A fan of lo-fi, scrappy DIY bands like Guided By Voices, The Replacements and Bill Fox, Auld spent his early twenties learning how to write the perfect 2 minute pop song. He also spent this time figuring out how to record to tape, and produce his own recordings. He moved to Bristol at 25 and befriended jazz musician and potter Nick Dover, who let him moonlight at his recording studio ‘Canyon Sound’. Over a two-year period he wrote and recorded the songs that would become Lemongrass (Earth Libraries, 2022), having performed and produced it entirely solo.

In his late twenties, Auld moved back to his hometown after struggling to replicate the community he had back in Norwich. At this point, he began performing the songs of Lemongrass with friends who encouraged him to play live.

“When I finished Lemongrass I sent it to my sister and she shared it with her boyfriend Conor and his housemate Duncan. They were super into it and so supportive.”
He also began playing drums in an alt-country band for the next few years, touring Northern Europe and the length and breadth of the UK, before focusing once again on his solo work. Loserdom, Auld’s second album, is a co-release by UK label Safe Suburban Home and US label Repeating Cloud and represents a big departure from his earlier twee-folk sound. Loserdom is a louder and more ambitious shift toward blown-out power-pop, inspired by records like Grand Prix by Teenage Fanclub, Pinkerton by Weezer and Tony Molina’s Dissed and Dismissed.

Auld wrote the record during a period of personal upheaval. Moving cities, leaving relationships and quitting bands resulted in songs filled with resentment, shame and a sardonic, over-the-top admission of failure. These songs are also a celebration of the relief that comes when you accept your losses. Auld first heard the term “Loserdom” said by Walter Becker in a Steely Dan documentary:
“I thought it was such a funny and tragic term and felt some affinity with it”.

Layered vocal harmonies and Bach-inspired guitar solos give the impression of a rock opera, while the arrangement and structure of these songs are concise and always conscious to not feel superfluous. Each song squeezes itself under the 3 minute mark with unhinged feedback, ripping solos and a refreshing degree of unpredictability.

The drums and rhythm guitars were tracked at Sick Room Studios in the Norfolk countryside, and were engineered by Owen Turner who owns and runs the studio. All of the remaining pieces (the solos, bass, keys and vocals) were then recorded over a period of almost a year at Auld’s home. The record was mixed down to ¼” tape with Auld’s bandmate Conor Etteridge assisting with the mixing process. Auld reached out to Dylan Wall to master the record, having appreciated his work on Hotline TNT’s Nineteen in Love.

Loserdom is certainly influenced by melodic, harmony-rich American bands such as Weezer, Jellyfish and Big Star, as well as the 90s Glasgow power-pop scene. Auld channels the heartfelt lyricism of Norman Blake’s songs in Teenage Fanclub, as well as the absurd guitar wizardry of Tony Molina. In doing so, Loserdom amps up the emotion, harmonies, and volume for an album that captures a rocky life transition with tongue-in-cheek drama.