As artists, feeling burnt out with your creative output is something that is all too common. It can be difficult to continue a project for many people when they feel this way, especially when you are in a musical group. In 2016, Losers released the album How To Ruin Other People’s Futures to critical acclaim. The group had ideas, but didn’t know where to go with them. Feeling creatively jaded, one of the members of the group, Tom Bellamy attended Barcelona’s fantastic music festival, Primavera Sound. It was here where Bellamy felt a creative recharge of sorts and it really ended up being the spark he needed to gain his creativity. If Bellamy wouldn’t have attended this festival and had this awakening would we have had this EP, the groups first release of new music in 5 years? While I cannot answer this, one thing is for sure, and that is this EP is truly welcomed and does represent an awakening and change within the groups focus and overall creative output.
Losers know how to craft an electronically-charged rock song, and they showcase this heavily throughout this EP. Songs like ‘Wake Up’ and ‘Fool Anyone’ are sure to pump adrenaline straight into the veins of the listener, recharging them to ensure they can conquer the world, if only for a few minutes. Losers have been featured prominently on a myriad of different television shows, video games and sporting events, and within listening to these first two tracks, I think you can certainly see why, as they are dramatically charged with a certain attitude that is as energetically stimulating and almost a sly smile of cynicism at the same time within the delivery. These two tracks can stand alone on their own but they really are able to shine within the entirety of this EP.
EP01 succeeds in showing us that Losers are certainly a band that can showcase a wide range of emotions, and they do in a smart fashion within the last two tracks of this EP, with ‘Follow You’ and ‘Lost In Translation’ which are more emotionally tinged, with a slower and more thoughtful delivery when compared to the bombasticness of the first two songs. Losers show us their full bag of tricks in only four songs, which is something that not many bands do. This is what an EP should do, showcase what the band is capable of within the musical spectrum. ‘Lost In Translation’ is the standout track within the last two songs on the album, as the listener is greeted to a very dreamy vocal delivery and an instrumental which could certainly put you into a meditative trance all on its own.
Sometimes watching our favorite groups take an extended break within releases can be an exhausting and painful process, but Losers show us on EP01 why it is important that we keep in mind that music takes thought and time to create. If Losers would have released something earlier, it wouldn’t have been as thoughtful and well positioned as the songs that we bear witness to on this particular EP. Losers come back to us in full form, putting out songs that are as thoughtful and fully fleshed out as they are good.
Rating 7.4/10
Favorite Track: Wake Up
Listen to the track 'Wake Up, from Losers' latest release, EP01, below: