Once upon a time, around three years ago, four musicians from the south coast of England came together and decided to make music under the name Foundlings.
They soon came to the attention of the good people behind Last Night From Glasgow, the not-for-profit record label founded in my home city back in 2016 (and yes, the name of the label was taken from the line in Super Trouper by Abba).
An excellent 5-track EP was released in March 2019 and the rest of the year was spent gigging and preparing new material for an album.
mp3: Foundlings – Caught Up
But then a few things happened.
The bass player decided to quit. The band were threatened with legal action by an American outfit known as The Foundlings. COVID put a spoke in the timetable for recording the debut album.
First things first…..the band changed their name to Hadda Be, lifted from the Allan Ginsberg poem, Hadda Be Playing On The Radio. Then, as an opportunity emerged after the end of the first lockdown period in the UK last summer, the band raced into a studio to record a debut album in just five days.
The album, Another Life, comes out tomorrow, Friday 30 April.
One of the joys of being a patron of Last Night From Glasgow is the opportunity to receive advance copies of the music before it goes on general sale. Another Life landed in Villain Towers just over two weeks ago, and it has been on very heavy rotation ever since. It’s a fabulous and very tasty slice of indie-pop at its finest. You’ll find shimmering guitars, punchy choruses, wonderful melodies and a bunch of songs that, for the most part, come and go around the three-minute mark, all of which, aside from the obligatory ballad, have the ability to get even the most reticent folk out of their chairs so that shapes can be thrown on the dance floor.
The new record has been preceded by a couple of digital singles, including the track that has given its name to the album. As it’s a new release, I don’t want to offer an mp3 for easy download, so here’s the two promos which use footage put together by the four band members in their homes – Amber, Ben, Matthew and Oliver – during the second lockdown period using green screens.
The album can be ordered from Last Night From Glasgow by clicking here. As the label says, Another Life has that classic indie guitar sound that has been lacking for some time – part Pixies, part Primitives, part Banshees, but all Hadda Be.
Highly recommended.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Video 1 I like but like the song less. Video 2 This is more my thing musically and another watchable video.
Enjoyed both of those, JC – two quite different songs, but
both very welcome. Thanks for the heads-up.
Like you JC I’ve been listening to this for the past 2 weeks and its a joy. Sat at home working on a screen the pure energy of this album has brightened my day and kept me awake when frankly some of the infernal ‘teams’ meetings have had the opposite effect. Can’t wait for a tour and a live performance hopefully in the East Midlands
Big development from Foundlings. Like it
Thanks for more great new music.