HMLTD
Fresh from selling out XOYO, HMLTD have announced the release of their debut album, 'West Of Eden', and a show on 20th February at Lafayette London. This will be Lafayette’s first show.
HMLTD returned last Autumn to announce the release of their debut alongside explosive comeback singles ‘LOADED’ and ‘The West is Dead’, plus a stunning curveball in ‘Why?’, and the boldly optimistic anthem ‘Blank Slate’ on the 23 January.
West of Eden, the expansive, labyrinthine debut album out 7th February 2020 via Lucky Number, has been several years in the making; a daring collection of songs created to incite conversation about proposed new visions of masculinity, the decadence of western capitalism and the violence of insecurity and repression.
“HMLTD have built their own inclusive cult community by drawing on every strand of outsider pop’s shock-and-awe tactics, from Ziggy Stardust through New Romanticism to The Prodigy and Peaches.”
- NME
"What’s great about HMLTD is that they’re exactly the sort of group you can imagine would have found themselves on Top of the Pops"
- ID
Henry speaks to the NME
What else is this album about?
“We’ve always tried to present an alternative version of masculinity. Which doesn’t fall under the queer umbrella, but is certainly different from the toxic version of masculinity which underlies patriarchy and which we’ve grown up surrounded by. That’s the only masculinity we’ve ever known in school, in our families, and I think we need to build another, alternative masculinity – a kinder, more creative, less violent one.”
Were you playing with that, putting it on a bit?
“I noticed that lots of bands were pretending to be working class. If you look at just about any band in London, they have what appear to be very thick working-class accents, which I know very well are not genuine. Because if you want to live in London and play in a band, then you probably need to come from a middle-class background. It is a privilege that is just not open to working-class people. [The affectation is] so problematic.
“I found it so much more fun to play with something more upper-class. It’s what Brian Ferry always did. He was a coal miner’s son but he acted like he was fucking Oliver Reed.”
Read the full interview here