Pushing Uphill - Radio, shops

Today I'm just passing on the news that our latest release Uphill/Apple by Herbie May has been played recently by Chris Hawkins who (and I paraphrase) described Herb as looking like a young Donovan and sounding like peak era Blur, which works for us. It was also played by John Kennedy on Radio X who described it more directly as 'great, just great' and then the same record was chosen by iconic Manchester Record Store Piccadilly Records as a Single of The Week: They say lots of nicely accurate things here... 

BEGINS:  "Second single from Herbie May - the Todmorden dwelling singer / songwriter from The Lounge Society who also heads up the Red Liquorice label, responsible for that Lily Rae Grant 7" earlier in the year.

"Uphill" is a jaunty acoustic number detailing the juxtaposition of modern life, balancing dreams against financial constraints, taking in the moment against being dragged along by the rat race and following your heart against people's expectations. It's clever and witty without being smug; infact it's catchy, sincere and beautifully articulated. With Herbie's slacker guitar chops and interesting chord progressions fast becoming his signature playing style. Very nice.

"Apple" has a slightly larger sound, with more distortion, heavier chorus and a thicker instrumental mix which goes towards creating quite an anthemic slice of indie-rock with stylistic inflections which should pique the interest of any Go-Betweens fans. I've not worked the lyrics out on this one yet (give us a lyrics sheet Herbie!) but I'm sure they offer more moments of commentary and wisdom that belie Herbie's younger years. I really do think we're in the presence of a very promising songwriter here...

Much like his first single, the 7" comes wrapped in vintage photography of the Calderdale Valley (Hebden Bridge, 1957) and somehow continues the small town, folk-informed lineage of yesteryear into the modern northern creative powerhouse it has become more recently. Highly recommended by us here at Picc HQ!

STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Loving this stuff on Red Licorice. Label head Herbie May drops his second single after bringing the sounds of Lily Rae Grant and Pareidolls into focus. ENDS

You can order it direct from us or from Piccadilly (or any other record shop that knows its business) If you order it from us you'll get a free lyric sheet!

All the best
RLR