there must be something better than this.
Hadyn Park-Patterson is LAST BOY! as he returns with a single to send off 2022.
Following the release of their sophomore album ‘Heavy Like a Headache’, The Ninth Wave officially called it a day following an announcement on their Instagram in February last year. The band had agreed that after their last run of gigs in the UK they needed a breather, but reassured fans that all of them had been working on projects that they were keen to shift their focus to.
I discovered the band via their song ‘Come Down Forever’. I don’t entirely remember how, though it was probably from a Frightened Rabbit song radio or recommendation from a friend, and I was captivated instantly by almost everything about them. Each new song I heard felt confident and their sound being reminiscent of 80s new wave and goth pop meant I had a soft spot for them fairly quickly. This, as well as Haydn’s striking vocals paired with Millie Kidd’s gentle but powerful tone are just a couple of the reasons that they made their way to number 3 on my Spotify wrapped in 2022. I wasn’t aware of the band for a particularly long time before they said their goodbye’s to that project, but Infancy will remain one of my favourite albums of all time, and Heavy Like A Headache is one of the albums I am proudest to have in my vinyl collection. (As I’m writing this, I am also debating whether I can afford any of their merch…)
Hadyn Park-Patterson’s new project took the form of LAST BOY, releasing the Coffin Fit EP on CD exclusively available at his gig at King Tut’s in August. Despite the fact that travelling from Leeds to Glasgow to hear his new music in person, or get my hands on a copy of the EP wasn’t possible, there was something that felt quite exciting and personal about this period of the project. Instead, I put my address into a box on Last Boy’s website and received a letter containing the lyrics from the song ‘whyd’yenever’ as well as a little back story and a QR code link to a private listing of the track. I heard a clip of it from the gig and I have to say - the use of a fiddle in a song has never made my brain so happy - it added an intensity that I wasn’t expecting and matched the energy of the lyrics.
‘whyd'yenever talk about the good stuff? you're pissing to the wind when you say you'll never win, oh, you've got it rough whyd'yenever talk about the good stuff? more, more, more of the shit you adore, oh, the good stuff
The next phase of the project began of course with deleting all old Instagram posts to make way for the new stuff. ‘There Must Be Something Better Than This’ got it’s first spin on BBC Radio Scotland 13 days before release but by pure accident and me not paying attention, I ended up waiting until the 30th to hear the tune in full. I can’t say I’ve been this excited about a new release in a while, and this was only fuelled when the lyrics were posted. Being quite pessimistic in nature, I resonated with each word but two lines stood out to me in particular.
'I don't wanna see any more beauty I saw enough of that yesterday I'm gonna take down the birthday bunting It's just another fuckin day'
You know when someone words something that you’ve never been able to verbalise before? Yeah. That’s exactly this. I think it explains perfectly when it feels like everything is the end of the world and you can’t be bothered trying anymore - especially the first line. I feel really quite seen by this song.
Haydn said himself in a recent Instagram post ‘I’m just trying to make light of the fact that it’s so easy for us… to feel like the good times are far away. If yr in a bad way, there’s something better down the road for you if you want there to be!’ I concluded a while ago that my music taste can be broadly defined as depressing, probably Scottish, but always has a little bit of hope (okay, this is a bit niche I tried to re-word it 6 times) and this song fits the mould fairly well. I’ve been known to get quite obsessive with music but it can take me a while to get bored of things. ‘There Must Be Something Better Than This’ is no exception to the rule; so far the song has 140 minutes worth of streams and I am sure that will only continue to increase as the year goes on.
The news of The Ninth Wave hiatus this year really made me wish I had known about them far sooner, but Last Boy’s debut hits exactly where I needed it to; pessimistic but energetic and brutally honest lyrics. I’m excited to see what this is all about.