My New Band Believe is the new project from former Black Midi member Cameron Picton. After the breakup of one of the most promising bands of the decade coming out of the UK’s Windmill scene, named after the bar where bands would play, all the members went and did their own projects. Former lead singer Geordie Greep released his debut solo album in 2024 to critical acclaim, while drummer Morgan Simpson joined the band Invariance. Meanwhile, Picton, while doing performances at the Windmill, didn’t do much after the band broke up. Almost three years later, he returned with the announcement of his new band, “My New Band Believe,” and released a new single to show off their new style, a focus more on soft art/folk rock and the harder progressive rock that Midi was known for.
“Love Story” is the first and only song for the album and is noticeably calmer, more of a chamber-pop ballad similar to Elliot Smith or Sufjan Stevens. It’s also much different from their debut single, “Numerology,” and “Lecture 25,” which were both rockier and jazzier. There is a focus on simpler sounds and instrumentation with light vocals and a calmer melody, a stark contrast to Black Midi, where, from the beginning, they had always had a focus on being really loud. Aspects of those ideas are still in this, but it seems that, like Greep, he would take his music in a totally different direction. This can be pretty risky, as not everyone can switch genres smoothly. And while this change isn’t as crazy as something like Lil Wayne making rock music, it’s definitely something that he would have to overcome. The good news is that I feel he does overcome this. The song progresses slowly but smoothly, intensifying towards the end, where everything lets go. This song goes well with the story of the song, which, if you can guess, is about love. It starts domestically, like talking about making dinner and sharing space, but as the song intensifies, so does the relationship, with feelings souring and growing increasingly unstable. You can hear this happiness start to go away in real time during the bridge of the song, where there are sounds of cooking in the background that are soon drowned out by the music. I think this was a great introduction to the concept of the album, which made me more curious about how this new sound would work.
The intro track, “Target Practice,” continues the ideas of Music Vs Lyric with the melody bringing more of a baroque pop sound that focuses on swelling strings and choir vocals in the background. Meanwhile, the lyrics contrast the music being dark and moody, centering around the story of the speaker wanting revenge on you (the listener) after you killed their uncle. It goes on, talking about having “plans that I’ll never share with you,” and “don’t cry, you deserve this.” I find the fact that, depending on whether you focus on music or lyrics more, you can get a different experience from this song. It could either be happy and maybe emotional if you listen to only the music, or it can be horrific if you pay more attention to the lyrics.
The next track, “In The Blink of An Eye,” cuts off the last song’s ending to start a mix of plucky guitars and an assortment of percussion that expands into a mass of sound. This piece is special for being more progressive and noisier than the other songs on this album, which I enjoyed, as most of the album is very easy listening, which can sometimes be draining. Being at a good length of five minutes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome or sell itself short. It keeps it simple, and sometimes that’s more enjoyable than a band changing their time signature for the tenth time in a song.
The last track I wanted to mention is the eight-minute-long “Actress.” This is probably the most progressive song on the album, from its use of multiple instruments layered over each other while also being in an odd time signature compared to the beat. It’s also probably the most expansive song, both because of its run time and because it does what it can to make that wait time worth it for the listener. The only problem is that it’s not really something that stands out and feels more like a recycled theme or idea from one of the other songs. I like that sound of the album, but it would have been nice if there was something more than something we have heard already.
I think this album did live up to the hype, but I kind of wish Picton did more to improve the mixing and some of the concepts in the album. As it stands, there are parts of this album that I think needed more time. But otherwise, I still think that this album is about a 7.5 out of 10.
