Desperate Journalist’s third album Maximum Sorrow!, released this summer through venerable indie imprint Fierce Panda, is a thing of darkly shimmering beauty, taking the 80s indie influences that their earlier recordings wore so proudly on their sleeves and coaxing them into ever more intriguing shapes. It’s their most impressive record yet, from the rabbit hole of layered vocals and teasing keys on opener ‘Formaldehyde’, through the twisting bass pulse of goth-pop floorfiller ‘Fault’ and the soaring guitars and inch-perfect dynamics of ‘The Victim’ to its bombastic finale, ‘Was It Worth It’. Maximum Sorrow! is a record to dance to, to sit in your bedroom pondering introspectively to, to share with absolutely anyone who’ll listen, and to keep as your own.
John Clay asked singer Jo Bevan about her three favourite tracks from the new record, and in the second of a series of interviews he asks her about ‘The Victim’.
Maximum Sorrow! is out now on Fierce Panda Records
Catch Desperate Journalist on tour at the following dates – tickets here
Sat 11 September 2021 | The Bread Shed | Manchester
Sat 6th November 2021 | Head of Steam | Newcastle
Sat 18th December 2021 | Record Junkee | Sheffield
Sun 19th December 2021 | Hare & Hounds | Birmingham
Sat 15th January 2022 | Thekla | Bristol
Sat 22nd January 2022 | Esquires | Bedford
Sat 12th February 2022 | The Bodega | Nottingham
Sat 19th February 2022 | Lafayette | London
Find out more on Desperate Journalist’s official website
Interview by John Clay
Introduction by Paul Maps
Photograph by Nick JS Thompson
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