A song about the impossibility of escaping the past...
The Name Of The Game
Out Fri 27 Feb
Balanced but restless.
Polished but not sterile.
Confident without bravado.
Demonstrating their artistic maturity and confidence to diversify and cross musical genres. Lyrically, now in full stride, with a songwriter weaving a tapestry of imagery throughout the track.
A great “box cart” rhythm tempo and a change of pace halfway, really sets this track apart from any others by the band.
There’s a certain audacity in titling a track “The Name of The Game.” It implies thesis. Manifesto. A knowing smirk at the mechanics of ambition, romance, industry — whatever battlefield the songwriter chooses.
What unfolds over five-plus minutes is less a declaration than a slow-burn dissection, a track that understands its own tension and refuses to rush the payoff.
Vocally, there’s a compelling push-pull between vulnerability and detachment. the delivery doesn’t beg for sympathy; it earns it through subtle cracks and tonal shifts. At moments, the voice hovers just behind the beat, giving the song a slightly unmoored feeling — as if it’s constantly catching up to its own thoughts. It works. It humanizes what could otherwise feel conceptually heavy.
The Bitter Mass is the project of Andy Clare, Dom Grace and Martyn Wilson — three friends making thoughtful, emotionally charged songs rooted in their working-class upbringing in South Leeds. Now living in different parts of the country, they write with one eye on the world and one foot still firmly planted in the streets they came from.
Dom, the band’s lyricist, weaves stories that feel deeply personal yet universally relatable. Andy, who sings and leads the musical side of the project when he’s not working as a train driver, brings the songs to life with heartfelt vocals and shimmering production. Train driver by day, artist by night — a detail that reflects the band’s no frills, real-life ethos.
Together, The Bitter Mass aren’t chasing scenes or nostalgia. They write songs that reflect the reality of ordinary lives with beauty and honesty — songs for people often overlooked, for places often ignored.
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