Benefits have shared a brand-new single called ‘Blame’ – you can listen to it below.
- READ MORE: Benefits on their Glastonbury debut and plans for new music
The track serves as the latest preview of the Teesside punk duo’s second studio album ‘Constant Noise’, which is due for release tomorrow (March 21) via Invada (pre-order/pre-save here), and serves as the follow-up to 2023’s ‘NAILS’.
With collaboration from James Welsh, the song sees the band expand on their new electronic, dance-driven influences as they lament the “distorted realities” people find themselves in due to media discourse.
Speaking about the track, vocalist Kingsley Hall explains: “Robbie sent me an mp3 one Friday night and it was incredible. The demo was chopped, lyrics clad on and was pretty much complete by midnight. We sent it to James Welsh to wave his magic dance wand over it and bingo. Leftfield, Trainspotting soundtrack, Gazelles, poppers etc. it’s all there. Hope you like it.”
It comes alongside a frenzied music video which the band recorded in the middle of the night with local filmmaker John Kirkbride, featuring Martin Fox. Check it out below.
Benefits’ latest single follows on from the tracks ‘Divide‘, ‘Missles’, ‘Land Of The Tyrants’ and ‘Relentless’ – the latter of which features Pete Doherty of The Libertines.
The duo are set to embark on a UK headline tour in April. Last November, they announced that they would be making the upcoming shows more accessible for fans by implementing both a price cap at £12 per ticket and enforcing a 10pm curfew. Find any remaining tickets here.
Kicking off tomorrow, Benefits will play a run of UK in-store gigs to celebrate the release of ‘Constant Noise’. You can buy tickets for those here.
During an interview with NME at Glastonbury 2023, Benefits spoke about what to expect from the follow-up to their acclaimed debut album, ‘Nails’.
“The point of the band originally was to react to current urgencies: political, social or whatever,” Kingsley Hall explained […] “We’re still writing all the time, but we need to get this done as soon as possible. The point of us was to be urgent and to be quick. That’s why the songs are so fast.”
Hall went on to talk about how bringing former Mogwai and current Texas live drummer Cat Myers into the band had “changed things”, and how each member provides “different influences”.
He told NME: “We have varied tastes […] There would be nothing more boring than our album if it was just to appease one type of person. We’ve had 6 Music Dad fans, Louder Than War readers, I want us to play Download because we have metal fans too.”