Ugly (UK)

Ugly are sharing their first new music of the year with ‘Next To Die’, the next step of their journey and fascinating portrait of a band growing into their undeniable promise. With the vocal harmonies that distinguished their early releases still present, ‘Next To Die’ perfectly captures the explosive dynamics of their incendiary live show.

The band offer: “Next To Die was the obvious choice for Ugly’s return, a year after the release of our EP and a year of intense gigging - it’s a song we’ve been playing relentlessly for a while now. It is a story of compromise and trying your hardest to make something work even if it’s ultimately doomed. It feels rejuvenating and transitional - emotionally and also sonically for the band moving forward. Because of this we wanted it separate from the album which we’re currently writing.”

“Leave the crutch to fall and claw to clutch the grass instead” goes the opening line, and within the song’s context it is a call to cast off thoughts of tomorrow and instead find beauty in the present. Though never spelt out directly, allusions to a place “beyond love”, with the repeated question of “where did we come undone?”, suggest a romance coming to its end. 

Originally founded in Cambridge a decade ago, for its first few years the band was a post-punk outfit with Sam Goater as principal songwriter and sole vocalist, their early EPs establishing a grassroots fanbase in the local scene. Now a sextet with just two founding members remaining (Goater and guitarist Harrison Jones), Ugly’s entire creative process was overhauled, sharing vocal duties across their lineup and approaching songwriting through intuitive collaboration and improvisation.

Their 2024 EP Twice Around the Sun cemented Ugly at the UK’s next indie darlings whilst simultaneously defying easy categorisation by spanning the furthest corners of indie, prog and folk. The new material better reflected the band’s new personnel and became a demonstration of what Ugly were capable of, and a chance to explore what kind of band they wanted to be.

New single ‘Next to Die’ is the next step in this trajectory. The song is one of a handful road-tested across last year’s festival circuit (Pitchfork Paris, Green Man and End of the Road being highlights), with every fibre of the song pared down to perfection – each cooed backing vocal and jangled guitar strum designed to cause maximum impact. 

The band are heading out on a short headline tour of the UK next month -  including a huge show at London’s Village Underground on 8 May - before a busy festival season in Europe. Buy tickets here.

Ugly are Sam Goater, Harrison Jones, Tom Lane, Harry Shapiro, Jasmine Miller-Sauchella and Theo Guttenplan.