My Life Story - Loving You is Killing Me
by Dave Goodwin
published: 4 / 5 / 2024
Label:
Exilophone Records
Format: CD
intro
Anthemic second comeback album from Britpop pioneers My Life Story
My Life Story were originally founded in 1984 by charismatic frontman Jake Shillingford and they rose to fame as a pioneering force of the Britpop movement. After releasing their debut album ‘Mornington Crescent’, they went on to have six UK top 40 singles and a top 40 album. Having worked with all sorts of notable names they have since performed on the Glastonbury Pyramid stage and at Reading Festival four times, supported Blur and Pulp, and are one of the only bands to headline over Oasis. After a long break of eighteen years from recording music, My Life Story returned with the critically acclaimed, fan-funded album ‘World Citizen’ in 2019. The band's current four-piece line-up features Shillingford (vocals), Nick Evans (guitar), Chris Hardwick (drums) and Jamie Thomas ( bass ) and their latest offering ‘Loving You is Killing Me’ is out now on Exilophone on the usual formats. Mixed by Ben Hillier, producer of works by the likes of Blur, Patrick Wolf, Nadine Shah, Peter Perrett, and Depeche Mode, this is a stimulating, electronic-fused offering crammed full of anthemic rhythms and hums. Theorising on love, life, and how we live it, ‘Running Out Of Heartbeats’ is the latest single taken from the album which has already sported ‘Numb Numb Numb’, ‘Tits & Attitude’ and ‘I’m A God’, and six brand new tracks. The whole album has me thinking of not so much Bauhaus but a solo Pete Murphy, and for me this no more evident than on the latest single and ‘Tits and Attitude’ . This outing also houses some of the faster more raucous tracks such as ‘Naked’ and ‘Numb Numb Numb’ and in places has that heavy, more industrial electro sound that John Foxx is moving around I have the CD version which comes in a double gatefold sleeve and also a booklet to boot which sports lyrics and credits and photowork by David Titlow. Other formats are on the lavish website of which the pink vinyl option looks particularly cool. Everything is well polished in the Life story camp and I can see them carrying on for a long time to come judging by this offering.
Track Listing:-
1 Running Out Of Heartbeats2 I'm A God
3 Numb Numb Numb
4 Tits And Attitude
5 Bubblewrap
6 Naked
7 B-side Girl
8 Identity Crisis
9 The Urban Mountaineer
10 Wasted
Band Links:-
https://mylifestory.band/https://www.facebook.com/MyLifeStoryUK/
https://twitter.com/MyLifeStoryUK
Play in YouTube:-
Have a Listen:-
interviews |
Interview Part 1 (2013) |
In the first part of a two-part interview, Andy Cassidy talks to Jake Shillingford from London-based orchestral indie pop group My Life Story about his band's twentieth anniversary and their first full-scale UK tour |
Interview (2012) |
photography |
Photoscapes (2024) |
Rob Hadley takes photos of Britpop act My Life Story at a gig at the Hare and Hounds in Birmingham. |
reviews |
World Citizen (2019) |
Epic orchestral pop on first album in nineteen years from pioneering Britpop group My Life Story |
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