By During their spring tour earlier this year, London-based quartet Flyte premiered a few new tracks from their upcoming debut album. I saw them play The Sunflower Lounge in Birmingham: the show was a set list spattered with old favourites (but mostly new releases), a cover of liv’s ‘Wings of Love’, and a rendition of ‘Faithless’ played in the middle of the crowd that provided for a perfect gig atmosphere. For me, the track that stood out the most was ‘Cathy Come Home’.
My luck, ‘Cathy Come Home’ is the third release from Flyte’s as-of-yet-untitled debut LP due to be released on August 25th. ‘Cathy Come Home’ follows tracks ‘Echoes’ and ‘Victoria Falls’ released earlier this year, forming a (so far) cohesive sound that bodes well for the album in its entirety.
‘Cathy Come Home’ doesn’t sustain the upbeat, indie-pop sound recognisable from Flyte’s more widely-known releases such as ‘Closer Together’, but more so resembles their ‘Diamond White EP’ entangled with the echoey harmonies of the band’s popular Facebook page covers – consisting of anything from Alvvays’ ‘Archie, Marry Me’ to Talking Heads’ ‘Heaven’.
The vocal harmonies of Will Taylor, Nick Hill, Jon Supran, and Sam Berridge provide comforting vocals for an uncomfortable narrative. The song is haunting lyrically and melodically, reflecting the band’s established 60s-influenced style, and is distinctively reminiscent of their influences such as Elliott Smith and Jackson Browne.
The track takes its title from Ken Loach’s 1966 docudrama of the same name: a gritty TV play that deals with social issues such as homelessness and domestic abuse. In an interview, Will Taylor explained that the songs about ‘parents struggling to let their children out into the world’; with a bleak subject and storyline, the song tackles social issues similar to Loach’s play with a deceptively gentle rhythm.
If you’re familiar with Flyte’s covers, it’s clear that there’s nothing quite like hearing them live. Flyte will commence a UK tour this autumn: stopping at a number of venues, beginning September 15th in Southampton, and finishing in Bristol on the 12th October.
[…] release of previous singles ‘Echoes’, ‘Victoria Falls’, and the dreamy narrative track ‘Cathy Come Home’. ‘Faithless’ has been around since 2013, but has only just (and finally) been given a studio […]