Haircut 100 have a new album coming, and that sentence alone carries real weight. ‘Boxing The Compass’ arrives May 29 via October is Orange Ltd, distributed in North America by BFD/The Orchard, with a vinyl release following June 26. It’s the band’s first full-length with the classic lineup since ‘Pelican West’ in 1982, a Platinum-certified, chart-topping debut that defined a moment in British pop and never really left the conversation.
The reunion gathered momentum when single “The Unloving Plum” became BBC Radio 2’s Record of the Week, followed by sold-out shows across North America and the UK. Nick Heyward, Graham Jones, Les Nemes and Blair Cunningham reconvened at Famous Times Studio in East London with producer Sean Read (Dexys), and what came out sounds unmistakably like them. The groove-driven, horn-laced melodic pop that made “Love Plus One” and “Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)” instant classics is still fully intact.
Heyward frames the album around navigation and return. “Boxing the Compass is the traditional way of finding out where you are on land or sea,” he says. “We’re arriving back at the port we left 43 years ago with a log of songs from our personal travels.” Nemes puts it more simply: “We are best mates but also a band. We light a spark inside each other as soon as we switch on the amps.” That’s not nostalgia talking. That’s a group of musicians who still trust each other completely.
‘Boxing The Compass’ is ten tracks of melodically rich, warmly produced pop from a band that earned its reputation the hard way and apparently hasn’t lost a step. On CD, digital and vinyl.
‘Boxing The Compass’ Tracklist:
- “Come Back To Me”
- “Vanishing Point”
- “Soul Bird”
- “Raincloud”
- “Sunshine”
- “The Unloving Plum”
- “Someone”
- “That’s a Start”
- “Dynamite”
- “A Wonderful Life”