Back in May, the scrappily melodic UK punks Martha released a new song called “Please Don’t Take Me Back.” As it turns out, that was the title track from Martha’s new album, which is dropping at the end of October. Along with the album announcement today, they’ve released another new track.
“Baby, Does Your Heart Sink?” is a collab with Futureheads singer Ross Millard, who I hope has been benefitting secondhand from the recent Kate Bush resurgence. The song’s immaculate hook, which brackets a ripping guitar solo: “Baby, does your heart sink when I call? I know it does.”
Martha offer this quote about the new single:
“Baby, Does Your Heart Sink?” is your classic break-up song, but one designed to be played at the disco at the end of the world. If there are multiple timelines, worlds, and universes out there, you’ve really got to wonder how things are going in the others, don’t you?
The video was shot at Pop Recs in the Futureheads’ hometown of Sunderland, here transformed into the Darkest Timeline Disco — a reference to another lyric from the song — and features an appearance from Michael McKnight of Frankie And The Heartstrings, Mehzeb Chowdhury, and Elf Kingdon. It’s dedicated to late Pop Recs founder Dave Harper and directed by Martha drummer Nathan Stephens-Griffin, who has a statement about the video itself:
This was the first time we’d all been together as a band for a while, and it was a really fun day. Pop Recs is a brilliant thing, and we want to support as much as possible — everyone should visit when they get a chance. We’ll be doing our Northeast album launch on that very same stage in early December and we can’t wait. Hopefully the people watching are more into it on the night though! It was also extremely cool to get to direct a video featuring a Futurehead and a Heartstring!
“Baby, Does Your Heart Sink?” is an insanely catchy blast of guitar-pop, and you really ought to check it out below.
TRACKLIST:
1 “Beat, Perpetual”
2 “Every Day the Hope Gets Harder”
3 “Please Don’t Take Me Back”
4 “Irreversible Motion”
5 “Baby, Does Your Heart Sink?”
6 “F L A G // B U R N E R”
7 “Neon Lung”
8 “Take Me Back To The Old Days (Reprise)”
9 “Total Cancellation Of The Future”
10 “I Didn’t Come Here To Surrender”
11 “You Can’t Have A Good Time All Of The Time”
Please Don’t Take Me Back is out 10/28 on Dirtnap.