Following up on the September release of their celebrated debut single “Safeword”, indie-rock four-piece The Bedside Morale return with new single “Bitter Things“, taken from their upcoming debut EP due in 2024.
Their new single “Bitter Things,” through hooky choruses, syncopated drums, Paul Simon-esque bass-lines and retrospective vocals, explores themes of loneliness, deceptiveness and insecurity-led bad habits.
Describing how the song came together, the band explain: “We’ve been really keen to try a call-and-response song, calling out with a hooky riff a la The Police or REM, and responding with a sultry and low-key verse section. The chorus came very naturally and Tim’s vocal line is gorgeous. The outro section, which we created almost in the style of a live orchestra swelling to a crescendo, is magic and one of our favorite things we’ve written as a band.
Lyrically with this one we really wanted to draw on a more conversational style that a lot of our favorite musicians do so expertly. That expositional outline of the character of a man. This was the first time we’ve done any real character work in a song. That’s not to say there’s no real world grounding for this person but this man is more of a villain. He uses negativity as a way of manipulation, at some point in his life found that self pity got him what he wanted, and he’ll sink to the absolute depths just to use someone for his own personal gain. So this one’s for that guy. Or, in truth, the deeply insecure, messy reality of that man. We all see you and we all see what you’re doing.”
The band, made up of T, Charlie, Tim and Kynan, have been making music together since 2014. What was immediately apparent was that they’d found something special together, and the pursuit of this close band began in earnest.
What do you think of The Bedside Morale’s “Bitter Things”?
