"Hey Sailor" by The New Obsession
Review
I'm really excited to be able to share with you the release of "Hey Sailor", the new single from The New Obsession.
Some of the young bands (and Alex, Lauren, Lilyana, and Preston are all 14 or 15 currently) coming out of the Coventry Music/The Tin "Live On Stage" project are simply exploding into orbit once they get going. I know I am enthusing about them but it is so invigorating to hear such confident & highly original talents coming through breathing freshness into the scene and promising so much for many years to come.
Each plays their music the way they envision it & are fierce in their independent ethic. None sounds like another. No-one sounds like The New Obsession & nor do they resemble any other particular band.
No wonder I find myself part of a queue currently to offer my respects. When Keith Fabrique was kind enough to play most of ‘Hot Music Presents Volume Fifteen' on his HillzFM show, he zoomed in on the band's "Their Eyes" (also their previous single) and you will be able to hear them being interviewed on his programme next week. Similarly, I encountered renowned producer John Rivers at Art in the Park in Leamington on Saturday: he too had just had his first experience of their music & was enthusing greatly. People like this do not go overboard with praise and their perspectives are profound.
No wonder therefore that they are stacking up so many other success indicators: being invited to play a range of venues & events (including our April "Hot Music Live Presents" fundraiser for The Tin), such as Godiva Festival 2025, the HMV Empire in Coventry, the Same Difference Festival in Wolverhampton, and they won Battle of the Bands at Zoe's Fest 2025.Upcoming gigs in Birmingham & Stratford upon Avon also indicate that news of their prowess is spreading fast & wide.
"Their Eyes" certainly opened the ears of so many listeners: a stunning & original composition performed with almost chilling intensity (you ought to hear it live). A lesser band would quite probably (and understandably) carried on a little further down the same road for consolidation's sake. Not The New Obsession. Produced, mixed and mastered by band mentor Mason Le Long, "Hey Sailor" takes them & us in a different direction altogether which serves of course to demonstrate their emotional & musical breadth.
The intensity of sensibility is still there thankfully: it's one of their unique selling points but the sound has shifted. Prosaically, the switch between acoustic & electric guitars you see live has been reconciled by including both for the first time on the same song.
Broadly you might have categorised their set as having two aspects, exemplified by the choice of guitar I suppose: a more poppy gentle side & a more gothic rock growl. They have found a way here to bring them both into the same space (the song's dynamics certainly shift during the duration) to great effect: they apparently see it as a summation of their previous work.
With an arresting title (that always helps of course), "Hey Sailor" explores similar territory to The Smiths in their earliest days: revisiting haunts and evoking generally melancholic memories in a bitter sweet mode. Which must have been easier for writers of The Smiths' ages than of these musicians. In addition to that Mancunian vibe, there is a French chanson one in there too. And they pull off the truth of the song beautifully.
By the end of 2025, The New Obsession will be in a vastly different place to how they entered it. Their stock has risen so high & continues to do so. Audiences of all ages are recognising the worth of this band & their already clear unique character. The quality of their writing as exemplified by "Hey Sailor" and its predecessors marks them apart and offers promise of tremendous potential. I have no idea where this will take them (they still have school to finish!) but I guarantee that many more people will be aware of them. I find "end of year awards" fairly divisive & pernicious and cannot participate in them: however I'm also a realist & if The New Obsession crop up in some, then I certainly shall not be surprised. And they so deserve such accolades.
You can catch them live (and I can't imagine that these will be their only dates) at The Rainbow in Birmingham on 25 September 2025 and at The Red Clover in Stratford-upon-Avon (a stripped back acoustic set) on 2nd November.
