National Album Day: Flyte – This Is Really Going To Hurt
National Album Day: Flyte – This Is Really Going To Hurt
Saturday October 16 was national Album Day, and it got me thinking, what has been one of the most impressive albums of 2021? As Head of music at Fly Live, I listen to music day in day out, so this album had to be something striking.
In April 2021 the London 3 piece, Flyte, brought us their 2nd studio album in form of the 10 track, break up journey, This Is Really Going To Hurt.
Within its writing, the album is a very personal and self-indulgent looking at a breakup of a long-term relationship. Will Taylor, frontman and key songwriter of Flyte, seems to know how to write the perfect heart break track.
The Album flows. The mood change from track to track is just perfect. The opener, Easy Tiger, sets the intention of what’s to come. Gives the listener context. Will states: “This is only gonna get worse.” And yes, emotionally on the album it will. (Yes, this is an album to stare at the ceiling to at 1 am.)
From sadness in tracks such as Losing You, Everyone’s A Winner to the more grooving track Trying to Break Your Heart and Mistress America, this album ticks many boxes.
A pure stand out has to be Love is an Accident. The party has come to an end, yet that person you want to stay does, whether they should or not. It’s warm, loving and just beautiful.
What’s so special about this album are the quintessential Flyte aspects. The beautiful acoustic guitar, the intricate harmonies between Will, Nick and John, and the warmth the band bring.
Nearing the end of their tour In September, I spoke to both Nick and Will before their gig at Rescue Rooms all about the album and touring.
How’s the tour been so far?
Will: Having not done it for two years, it’s sort of all the wonderful things and all…there aren’t any non-wonderful things…just all the difficult things. Every aspect of it, we more or less forgotten. So, it’s just been remembering it all. And yeah, I love it. I don’t want it to end, I’ve only just got necessary human beings.
We’re also there’s been that feeling of will everyone come to mind, but I hope everyone comes to my party feeling of like, maybe they’ve forgotten this, and then we’ll come to my party. But everyone came to the party and more so than ever, so that’s been very encouraging.
This album we just put out is very kind of intimate and a very personal record. That was another aspect of going out on this tour that we were worried about, that it wouldn’t have translated and be a different audience maybe that turns up. But we’re seeing all the old faces and we’re seeing loads of new faces, and everyone seems to have really connected well with the heartbreak of the whole thing.
Have you found that people have maybe reached out to you about how the album has made them feel?
Will: People were doing it left, right and centre online, but it’s funny the difference between a dm on Instagram or tweet or something like that and actually, having someone come up to you in real life and kind of seeing how genuine it is. The fact is that it’s a breakup album, so it’s kind of arbitrary, in one sense. If someone has had a breakup that albums going to be pretty useful to you because anything is really, anything that is going to translate your sadness for you.
And that’s, you know, the relationship that came to an end that inspired the album. I was kind of very in need of the right album to listen to at that time and I couldn’t quite find it. I found albums that worked that were breakupy albums, but I felt like there was the perfect album out there somewhere. I hadn’t found it. So, that was the incentive, ‘oh, I’ll try and write that album’ the album that exactly what I would want in this moment for me and hopefully that can just be for other people when, when it comes down to their time.
What is your favourite track from the album to play live?
Nick: I personally love playing Everyone’s A Winner because it’s just sort of, I don’t know, it’s just we put so much soul into that song. We put so much effort into it and there was such a broad subject matter that we were trying to pull off and I think we just got it right in the recording, and so to play live with the full band and for people to react the way they do. It’s just, it’s kind of awesome. I feel very, very moved when I play it.
On Tour you have had a lot of local support acts from each city you have been to, what does it mean for you to ask local talent to play?
Will: It’s just a great opportunity for that local artist to just maybe put themselves in front of more people than maybe they would. A good way to support a local artist is getting in front of a crowd like that. It’s also really nice meeting with these people and we’ve done 16 shows now so the odds are, you know, at least a few of them are gonna end up being a lot more successful than we are and we get to support them.
Other Albums that stand out from 2021:
- Liz Lawrence – The Avalanche
- Still Woozy – If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is
- Inhaler – It Won’t Always Be Like This
- Alfie Templeman – Forever Isn’t Long Enough
- Alice Phoebe Lou – Glow
- Joy Crookes – Skin
By Meg Atkinson
Image Credits: Meg Atkinson
