Luke Branch, frontman and songwriter of Asylums, is back with The Lookalike, the second single from his debut solo body of work. It is out on Tuesday 10 November via Obtuse Records / Cool Thing Records, and follows Guttermouth.
The idea is a neat one. There is the best version of yourself, well-rested, well-read and on first-name terms with the gym, and then there is the one that actually turns up, run ragged and fuelled by too much coffee. Luke has met them both. After a spell as the second one he took a breather, had a good look at the pair, and wrote a song about it. The press release says it was born out of burnout and the search for a way back, and describes it as deep but not bleak, with strange sounds, a big groove and a hook that asks where the lookalike is.
He wrote it, played every instrument and sang every note. It was recorded at SS2 Recording in Southend-on-Sea with his longtime friend and engineer Rees Broomfield, then mixed by Dave Eringa, whose credits include the Manic Street Preachers and Wilko Johnson. The cover is another oil painting by Luke, manipulated in Photoshop. JJ Eringa directed the official video, and a reimagined spoken-word version will come with a second video directed by Andrew Delaney.
What I like is that a songwriter with four albums behind him in Asylums, the last of them in 2022, has used the quiet period to take care of himself and then turned it into a song about exactly that. Doing the music, the painting and the label side all in one place is the sort of thing I'm happy to back, and it makes me want to see where the full body of work goes.
Guttermouth got its global premiere on John Kennedy's X-posure show on Radio X, where he made it his Hot One, and it has had support from the BBC and Absolute Radio too. Rock Sound called it "an expansion on everything that he has already achieved". Luke also co-scored this year's film 40 Dates and 40 Nights, starring Bailee Madison and Joel Courtney.
On the record, Luke says: "Some time away from touring gave me the space to look after myself a bit and develop musically; I never used to have the time to do that particularly well. The Lookalike came from re-organising my creative practice and personal life during that peaceful time."
Live dates:
- Thursday 12 November – Sound / Visuals / Spoken, Towngate Theatre, Basildon
- Wednesday 9 December – supporting Weather Happy, Paper Dress Vintage, London
More at https://lukebranch.com/