London-based band The Mad Mile show a consuming sound throughout their debut album Legroom, emitting a grippingly dynamic rock appeal — traversing across realms of shoegaze, post-rock, trip-hop, and post-punk with seamless cohesion. Formed in 2024 by Adam Pickering and Matthew Goodbody — who had worked previously together on projects like math-rockers General Admin — The Mad Mile pairs resonating rock-ready stylishness, melodic immediacy, and an array of thematic pursuits on this excellent release, which is out today.

Opening the album with a haunting piano-led spaciousness, “Wendy Houses” quickly moves into a guitar twanging whose murkiness conjures a post-punk allure. Doses of synths ease in seamlessly around midpoint, as the “rain clouds gather” lyrical descriptions further the ominous sense. The track enthralls in its magnetic rock vigor and clever lyricism, illustrating how adult relationships can devolve; by flocking to a Wendy house upon the sight of conflict, the couple within chooses isolation and childish resentment over resolution.

Another standout track, “Confidence Plus One” captures the imprisonment of social anxiety within a moody post-punk and alt-rock melding. Eerie overlapping vocal layers and spacey synths play with sporadic enticement, referencing the attainment of a “destination” and risk-taking as the murky post-punk backing combines with vocal moroseness for a sound fondly reminiscent of The Chameleons. Elsewhere, “Usable Advice” struts a jangly guitar enjoyment as vocals declare “no one knows where I’m coming from” to open, venturing thereafter into a fantastic “do you think that’s usable advice?” hooky questioning. Legroom is a consistently captivating success from The Mad Mile.

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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.

We discovered this release via MusoSoup.

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