❉ The Nightingales are more artistically relevant than ever, writes James Collingwood.
“The Nightingales have certainly always been “sonically more interesting than most” with Robert Lloyd writing some of the best lyrics around… and the band are sounding musically confident and brimming with fresh ideas.”
In the 2015 Nightingales song Gales Doc (which later appeared in the magnificent Stewart Lee and Michael Cumming film King Rocker) singer Robert Lloyd gives a tongue in cheek description of himself and his group. After describing how the Nightingales construct a song, Lloyd speaks of himself humorously with the words, “he boasted that his group believed they are sonically more interesting than most.”
In the early ’80s John Peel, a massive fan of the ‘Gales, described the band like this: “Their performances will serve to confirm their excellence when we are far enough distanced from the 1980’s to look at the period rationally and other, infinitely better-known bands stand revealed as charlatans.”
The Nightingales are in fact now as artistically relevant as ever and have certainly always been “sonically more interesting than most” with Robert Lloyd writing some of the best lyrics around.
Since King Rocker became a cult hit, they’ve toured the UK and the world extensively and the band (consisting of Robert, along with Fliss Kitson, Andreas Schmid, and Michael Smith) are sounding musically confident and brimming with fresh ideas.
Opening track, The Emperors’ New Clothes starts proceedings off with no messing around. It sounds like an old bar room rock and roll knees up with tinges of folk and Eddie Cochran. At times here the band sound like a post-punk version of Pentangle. There’s definitely no messing around with the second track either: The Same Old Riff uses a Queen Bitch/early Velvet Underground style riff and satirises our troubled, egotistical and sometimes violent times. “Where callous choices reflect a self-centred world” sings Lloyd.
Gates of Heaven Ajar with an opening riff based on the Disney song “Bibbidi-Bobbidi Boo” (true!) is actually a sort of morbid music hall parable on death whilst The Men, Again sounds like early Gales and is three or four songs in one with a seventies prog rock vibe.
The Best Revenge with its line “To refrain from imitation is the best revenge” quotes Nietzsche and is followed by the echoey deep psych of Just Before. Two of the strongest tracks on the album.
The voice of drummer and Gales’ driving force Fliss Kitson introduces Warm Up which begins as a fast indie song but ends up like another bar room knees up and Fliss’s drumming on Joyce is great. On this track to my ears the band sound like a modern-day Black Sabbath.
All Smiles sounds like tuneful indie pop of the ’80s and The Limpest Bark is the Fall with a better singer. The Princess and the Piss Artist is brilliant and one of the best songs on the record. (Black) Country ballads always suit Robert’s voice.
The album closes with The Morning After Mouth which sounds like a Beefheart song filtered through a Cannock/Brummie sensibility (with traces of Norwich and Germany perhaps). A strong finisher.
This is all strong stuff from the Nightingales, and The Awful Truth is definitely their most interesting record yet.
❉ The Nightingales – The Awful Truth was released 4th April 2025 on Fire Records. Click here to order from FIRE RECORDS
❉ Currently co-writing a book on Steven Wells, James Collingwood is based in West Yorkshire and has been writing for a number of years. He currently also writes for the Bradford Review magazine for which he has conducted more than 30 interviews and has covered music, film and theatre. Bluesky: jamescollingwood.bsky.social
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