The Mysterines

Starting again is never easy. It takes guts, determination, and force of will to move out of the shadows of yesterday. But this is precisely what British rock band The Mysterines have done. Their ferocious new album, Afraid of Tomorrows (out on June 21, 2024 via Fiction Records), burns the past to the ground and builds something brand new out of the rubble.

Formed in Liverpool, The Mysterines – frontwoman Lia Metcalfe, drummer Paul Crilly, bassist George Favager, and guitarist Callum Thompson – have undergone a radical transformation over the past few years. Fresh with new purpose and reinvigorated from songwriting sessions while secluded away in the countryside (in between playing to 60,000-strong crowds while on tour with the Arctic Monkeys), the band are now about to release the best music of their career. “We can feel the difference with this album,” Metcalfe says. “These songs show how far we’ve come. We’ve grown up a lot.”

It’s certainly a far cry from the furious, thrashing energy of their critically acclaimed Top 10 debut, Reeling, which was championed by titles including The Independent, NME, DIY, Spin and The Line of Best Fit. Produced by GRAMMY-winner Catherine Marks (Boygenius, Wolf Alice), the 2022 record thrived on a very literal kind of teenage angst, at the same time drawing on Metcalfe’s imagination for its narrative story-telling.

The lived experience in Afraid of Tomorrows shines through, in the skill of the band’s playing, their confidence, and the wary/weary tone of Metcalfe’s delivery. The band spent a month recording the album with John Congleton – the GRAMMY Award-winning artist, producer, mixer, and engineer – at his brand new studio in LA.

Afraid of Tomorrows is the perfect frame for Metcalfe’s extraordinary voice. Like no one else on the British rock scene, she can switch suddenly from a lascivious purr to a hair-raising yowl, the love-child of Courtney Love and Karen O. Perhaps the most impressive part of the record is how much it demonstrates the band’s colossal ambition. “I think it’s easy to look back and feel judgemental about your younger self, but we’re past that now,” Metcalfe says. “We feel like we know who we are as a band.” And with an album like this, they’re ready to take on the world.