“If my mind’s a king then I’m guilty of treason” snarls DEADLETTER’s frontman Zac Lawrence on the opening opus of Hysterical Strength, their quite brilliant debut album. The visceral, darkly humorous lyric sets a precedent that the rest of the album only aggrandises; across its near 50 minute run time, the record is deft, daring and unafraid of despair. Crooning saxophone dips in and out, distorted and progressive guitars layer the roaring soundscapes that Lawrence rambles around, without direction yet fully in control.

As art-rock and post-punk continues to finally stampede into mainstream guitar music (see the excellent English Teacher’s Mercury Prize win), DEADLETTER are amidst the calvary, with this new album a rallying cry of innovation, fearless emotion and prolific musicianship.

Listen to Hysterical Strength…

Read the band’s track-by-track analysis…

“Credit To Treason”

Written whilst wallowing in bitter self-loathing. I said aloud to myself something along the lines of “If my mind’s a king then I’m guilty of treason”. It’s self-deprecation at its finest but the aim through writing the lyrics was not to brutally mock myself but to give myself a much needed kick up the arse. Musically, it started out as a voice memo called “Psych Jam 3” which we at first overlooked. Alf and George were bashing out a one note drum and bass rhythm, then I started to play the riff over the top on a 12-string. A few weeks later, listening back, we realised the bastard had legs. 


“More Heat!”

The oldest song on the album, “More Heat!” is about continuously doing something that grants you no enjoyment, through the fear of swallowing a dollop of pride. Musically it came together rapidly, and has been in and out of the live set since its inception. 



“Mother”

Last year, we had a nightmarish trip to Turin in Italy to a sadly very undersold festival. We lost a load of gear on the flight out and returned to the UK having had about 3 hours sleep each. I decided to draw the curtains and curl up foetus style and watch three Bong Joon-Ho movies back to back. The latter of the three was Mother. The lyrics bear direct reference to scenarios throughout the film, but also inspect wider the idea of motherhood, and the lengths a mother will go to for their child. It’s the closest thing to a true ode to my own mother’s unparalleled compassion for me and my sister throughout our lives; her unwavering and determined tenderness despite a plethora of  hardships is truly inspiring. Here at DEADLETTER HQ, we bloody love our mums. Musically, it came together in the same rehearsal as “Credit To Treason” but was also overlooked at first, beginning life as a voice memo titled “Psych Jam 2”. It’s definitely one of Poppy’s finest moments not only on the album, but on anything she’s played on, and her performance here is what truly makes this song. 



“Bygones”

One of my personal favourites from the album, “Bygones” questions the somewhat understandable, somewhat bizarre nullification of resentment that can occur after the death of a person. It began its life in a dodgy rehearsal room in Earlsfield where myself, Alfie, and George were doing some writing, but was truly brought to life when the six of us came together and each added our own individual parts. The middle-8 riff actually dates back to a set-opening jam by our previous band at a Catholic festival in 2019. 


“A Haunting”

The lyrics were written whilst on tour in Germany in 2022. It’s main motif is that of not letting oneself rot away plagued by guilt, but instead to proactively ensure things that may haunt you or your people are not repeated. The song started as myself and Sam playing two guitars whilst everyone else was having a cigarette in a writing session, then when they all came back in it made sense as a whole very quickly. 



“It Flies”

“It Flies” is about time’s inescapable oppression. Upon writing, I remember saying “let’s try the Binge technique”; Alfie started playing the beat, then George very quickly put that bass line over it, and with very little discussion the whole thing came together in no more than 20 minutes, making its way into our live show a few weeks later. 



“Hysterical Strength”

An exploration of the corresponding phenomenon, “Hysterical Strength” investigates the notion that one’s mental state can have characteristic shaping effects on one’s physical abilities. Another overlooked voice memo that was rediscovered months after having been jammed, its pulsating rhythm section and interwoven guitar and sax melodies make for one of the album’s most monumental moments. Picture an army of twenty thousand charging toward their enemy whilst listening to it. 



“Relieved”

A song about over-politeness, and an inability to remove oneself from unwanted encounters. It was mainly written in sound checks on our 2023 Autumn tour. As soon as George wrote that bass line, we knew this was going to be a single, however we also knew that of all the songs on the album it was probably the “sore-thumb”. I mean this not in a negative sense, but in the fact that it is characteristically, tonally, and sonically quite significantly contrasting to the rest of the songs. A dancey number nonetheless. 



“Deus Ex Machina”

The theme here is that of a disgust for authority, especially authority that can’t even make up its own mind as to how it wants to operate. Another set of lyrics written whilst in the EU in 2022. Aside from all the (much deserved) jibes about Brexit we were getting, we then awoke one morning to see on the news that we had a new Prime Minister, no more than 50 days after having just heard a similar announcement. The majority of the music came together in sound checks on that same tour, with some additional refinement later on, and an inclusion of flute from Poppy and some rather doomy low piano notes added during the album’s recording with Jim Abbiss. 



“Practise Whilst You Preach”
A very literal set of lyrics, based on my own experience of living in a room in a flat whose floor was the ceiling of a preacher. She used to screech and snarl in the most ghastly of ways all night long. I couldn’t help thinking she needed to find God, or something along those lines – which is bizarre considering she was supposed to have done exactly that. It’s another track who has existed for a number of years and was a real group effort writing wise. The way Will, Sam, and Poppy work together on this one alongside George’s “chordy” bass line makes for a stand out moment. 



“Mere Mortal”

The song was written following personal tragedy. Through writing the lyrics I was trying to better understand the feelings of grief and loss that were mounting up within me. It was another track that came together on our long tour in 2023, and once again showcases a tune that came together in the writing room as a result of everyone laying down their part at the same time. 



“Auntie Christ”
A song about a figure who I have spent the best part of four years reading, re-reading, and trying to fully understand. The person in question knew they’d be a “posthumous man” which I have always found to be incredibly interesting. I also thought there was something funny in finishing our debut album with a track that almost alludes to the fact that it could be the end of it all. Musically, the track came together a few months prior to the album’s recording, and a close friend of ours described it as “Orc-Rock.”