The Golden Dregs

A singular voice in music, London-based six piece The Golden Dregs return with the announcement of their fourth studio album, Godspeed, due 25 April via Joy of Life International. Alongside the announcement, the group are sharing a first taste of the album with new single ‘The Company Of Strangers’.

A charming, hook-filled track, ‘The Company of Strangers’ is richly layered, blending folk-tinged guitars with playful piano riffs and lush harmonies. But with its gentle melodies come profound reflections on urban life, as Ben wryly delivers lyrics like: “Maybe it’s time I was taken out to pasture / since lately I’ve been getting it wrong”.

Of their new single, Ben says: “The Company of Strangers is a business empire into which one might invest their best life years, best health, best thoughts, every last hour of daylight in the winter months, to expire, become surplus to requirement, served notice, redundant. The Company doesn’t care about you but you are better than that. Godspeed The Company.”

The Golden Dregs was originally conceived as a solo project by multi-instrumentalist Ben Woods, but on their new album Godspeed, the project has fully evolved into an ensemble with individual contributions from each band member forming a vital part of the record.

At the heart of it, though, is Ben’s resonant baritone and vivid songwriting. An ode to the city, Godspeed soars and plunges through urban highs and lows, capturing collective human experiences — loneliness, resilience, and the interconnectedness of strangers. It’s personal yet outward-looking, and full of hooks that surprise and linger.

The album launches Ben’s independent label, Joy of Life International which has been formed in collaboration with End of the Road Records. 

The Golden Dregs will also be embarking on a UK tour with Field Music

“We’ve been dying to meet you,” Ben Woods sings on “Linoleum”, the second single from Godspeed, album number four for The Golden Dregs. This rousing greeting doubles as a mission statement for the project. What began as a solo endeavour by the then Cornwall-based multi-instrumentalist and producer has grown into a six-member ensemble, each artist deeply rooted in London’s grassroots music scene. On Godspeed, for the first time, each band member contributes individually, but Woods’ songwriting and resonant baritone remain at the core — an anchor welcoming listeners into the fold.

The city plays its part here. A very close ear will pick up London’s cranky ambience, recorded on a handheld recorder by synth player Davy Roderick, then woven into the songs. And where the previous The Golden Dregs record, On Grace & Dignity (4AD), held up a light to and lamented a certain kind of rural experience, Godspeed turns the contrast up three or four notches above its predecessor, feeling cut through with the spirit of the city because of it. The highs are higher: a wall of sound soars more and more euphorically on penultimate track, "The Wave”. The lows are lower: “I think I’ve had enough to last a lifetime” announces the chorus on "The Weight of it All”, a beautifully devastating homage to irreparable situations, sung by Issie Armstrong.

“People have inspired this record. To be in a densely crowded space, surrounded by strangers, and to think for a moment how every person is living out their own stories, figuring out loss and love and frustration and all the things that make up the human experience - I find that so curious. It’s a deeply personal record, but I like to think that it is personal with open arms, an experience to be shared.”

Indeed, The Golden Dregs’ songs have always been less about telling individual stories and more about narrative vignettes, snippets of images that leave the listener guessing. And although Godspeed has a clear sense of character — “I came here to drink on my own, I don’t see the problem” (Heron) eerie synthesisers abounding; “maybe it’s time I was taken out to pasture / since lately I’ve been getting it wrong” (The Company of Strangers) — this is not introspective music. It looks beyond its author and his immediate situation to something more collective.

While it continues the sonic signatures of the previous records from The Golden Dregs, Godspeed is more immediate. The hooks are constant — hear “Perfume”, “The Company of Strangers”, Stranglers-esque cut “If You’d Seen Him” — but rarely resort to familiar tropes, leaving room for unpredictable turns. This assuredness is given further weight by the fact that Woods own label Joy of Life International, an imprint of and collaboration with End of the Road Records will release the album: a statement of independence and creative intent. Much like the current incarnation of The Golden Dregs, Joy of Life International is also a dynamic collective – January 2025 sees the label release its first non-The Golden Dregs music: a single by Ohtis, an established alt-country project based in Normal, Illinois, produced by Ben Woods, with further releases in the pipeline.

“Songs are such a precious commodity. This label has been established out of necessity, to create a space in which these songs, and the songs of other writers that I admire, may be platformed and encouraged and celebrated. It also provides a release avenue for some of the artists that I produce, a sort of farm to table approach to music making.”

Last year, in between finishing this new record and setting up Kate Bush’s former studio as a new base for solo work and Joy of Life International, the band supported Future Islands at Crystal Palace Park, opened for Ezra Furman at Union Chapel and sold out a series of surprise intimate gigs to test new material. The future looks bright for these songs to find their people. Godspeed.