283) The Lottery Winners - ART

I remember The Lottery Numbers going to number one with this record back in 2023 and thinking they have come from nowhere. Obviously, I had never heard of them or a note of their music.

Reading online they formed in 2009 and honed their craft playing live before releasing their major label debut in 2020 which made the top thirty and the follow up just missed the top ten. Clearly a band building momentum and not coming from nowhere. There was also a cover versions album released during lockdown that has some interesting covers on I would like to hear but I have failed to track it down so far.

Thirteen tracks although opener (Play), (Pause) and closer (Stop) are brief interludes spoken by Stephen Fry. Lead singer Thom Rylance was not in a great place when he started to write this album, but the songs helped him emotionally from a dark place and each song is placed on the record in the order they were written. Strangely though, if you have not had an enjoyable day this is certainly a record to cheer you up.

As he speaks at the start of Worry with “I’m ok, I’m ok,” a simple piano leads us into drummer Joe Singelton’s banging drums and doesn’t let up, if I were young, I would possibly dance to this, possibly. Burning House bassist Katie Lloyd takes the lead on the chorus and nails it, catchy as hell as the kids would say, maybe.

As well as Mr Fry other guest stars appear, Shaun Ryder is on Money and hasn’t sounded so alive in years (“I like that, turn it up” he shouts at one point). Rylance speaks/raps on Letter To Myself before Frank Turner joins him for the ridiculously catchy chorus. Culture Club was never my music but I always though Boy George had a great voice, and he still does on the wonderful Let Me Down.

Long Way Down goes out with the line “hate myself in the morning,” repeatedly being sung as a mantra but the song Sertraline (an antidepressant tablet) seems to be a way of him finding his feet, finding a balance in his life, long may it continue.

Your Not Alone, Rylance and Lloyd’s vocals come together perfectly on the chorus and the title track Lloyd is back again (she has a wonderful voice) backing Rylance as he takes us home in an epic way.

Clearly this record was Rylance struggling and coming through, a new record has just recently been released, and I hope he did not need to suffer. He should write down somewhere, if troubled, that he has a talent and a right good bloody band here.

8/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: Long Way Down