REVIEW: In Another Life, Outside Left

August, 2026 | Max Swirl

When they lost their singer back in 2009, Deardarkhead just thought 'what the hell, we'll just go instrumental'. That means a lot of clever musical twiddlyness of course. In my experience, singers always think the rest of the band are their backing band and the rest of the band think the singer is only the singer because they can't play anything. So when they bin the singer, the temptation is to prove to the world that the music stands up on its own without the vocals. Sadly, that's all bollocks and you do need the vocals, otherwise you get this, their first new stuff for 25 years and very competent, a bit twiddly, notes of the Cure and New Order in here somewhere, but at the end of the day, instantly forgettable. Better start hitting those FB Groups and find yourself a lead squawker, chaps!

https://outsideleft.com/main.php?story=outsideleft-week-in-music-playing-the-spoons