(28th November) Manchester indie risers Delights today release "Hotel Bar" - a tantalising new taste of the band's debut album 'If Heaven Looks A Little Like This' - out 17th January 2025 on Modern Sky.
Following their recent date supporting Blossoms in Manchester and selling out the pre-order of Blood Records' pressing of their upcoming debut in less than thirty minutes, Delights have also been announced to support Welsh rockers CVC in Cardiff on 14th December - before the band head out on their own UK headline tour in spring 2025.
The velvety smooth, lowkey funk of new single "Hotel Bar" draws from influences as varied as Men I Trust and Daft Punk. It captures a night on tour at luxurious odds with the regular on-the-road lifestyle of Travelodge's and service station meals. “Our guitarist [Ben] Squires works at a spa and he gets a discount, so, in Bristol, we ended up staying in this really nice spa,” singer Maxwell explains. “We were walking around in slippers and white gowns, having the best time of our lives. We got back and headed to the hotel bar and ordered the most obnoxious, complicated drinks. It was just about the experience of all of us together.”
That spirit of togetherness and unity fuels Delights' upcoming debut album, both in the sounds they’ve created and the record’s broad themes. Although there are subplots of love and relationships dotted through it, at its heart, this is a record dedicated to the experience of being in a band.
“I was quite conscious that, if we want it to stand our own test of time, I want to know where I was and where we were as a collective,” says Maxwell, “So lyrically, it’s trying to explain that story of us doing this and having fun, but where we are right now – skint, working hard, trying to be in a band and do cool things that playing will allow us to do.”
Delights' string of singles in recent months have seen airplay on BBC R1's Future Artists, from BBC 6 Music's Steve Lamacq, as well as an addition to Radio X's X-Posure Playlist, as well as key tastemaker press support from The Line of Best Fit, DIY Magazine, Dork Magazine, Rough Trade, The Rock Revival, Far Out Magazine, When The Horn Blows, Ones To Watch, and more.
Delights' debut album 'If Heaven Looks A Little Like This', produced by Michael Smith (Wolf Alice) is out 17th January on Modern Sky - available to pre-order on 12" vinyl and CD here. New single "Hotel Bar" is out now.
Delights will tour the album in 2025 with stops in Leeds, Nottingham, Bristol, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, London and Manchester, tickets on sale here.
Delights are: Adam Maxwell (vocals), Ben Kirkland (bass), Ben Squires (guitar), Leo Willis (drums) and Cameron Stephenson (percussion).
On Delights' debut album 'If Heaven Looks A Little Like This' (out 17th January 2025), the Manchester band are stepping into an electrifying new world of sound. “This is the only moment you have your debut album,” reasons drummer Leo Willis. “So [you can] step outside your comfort zone and experiment.”
Produced by Michael Smith (Wolf Alice), their first full-length record introduces a wider sonic palette that reflects their collective tastes through an appreciation of legacy and their hometown forebears, with vibrant nods to funk, soul, disco, psychedelia, classic rock, and stadium-sized indie-pop.
Decamping to a house in France to build the initial framework for their debut full length, for 10 straight days the band worked from 11am until 4am, pressing record when they woke up and not hitting stop until they went to sleep. This time away from the noise of their daily lives ultimately allowed Delights to make the album mirror the live experience, bringing the energy of all five of the band playing together as one.
The band would then go on to finish the record at Oxford’s Woodworm Studios, where they worked with Michael Smith. “When we got to the studio, we were really conscious about making the most of the time we had there,” vocalist Maxwell explains. “So being able to hash out everything before we got there, but leaving room to experiment in the studio, was massive.”
Delights released their debut EP 'In My Life' in 2021, followed by 2022's mini-album 'Cool Sports' - interspersed with a string of buoyant single releases. During those formative years, Delights saw their stocks unwaveringly rise. Described by The Line of Best Fit as "finely-crafted next-gen indie" with the arrival of 'Cool Sports' in 2022, since then the band have embarked on numerous successful UK headline tours, sold out shows at London's MOTH Club and Manchester venue Canvas, received keen radio support from BBC R1 & 6 Music, and BBC Introducing in Manchester and have amassed over 5 million streams for their releases to date.
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