Pet Deaths - Unhappy ending (2022)

Graeme Martin and Liam Karima made the new pet deaths album to be both explored and sat with. In age of dull disconnection and constant refreshing, unhappy ending, the London duo's second full-length effort, was deliberately and acutely considered to be a journey of its own; nine new songs but one whole immersive piece for the listener to climb inside, in the quiet of reflection, in the sobering commute to and from.

Following on from the sparkling celestial folk of the band's 2019 debut To the Top of the Hill, unhappy ending is the next step in pet deaths' somewhat remarkable journey. Setting out to make their new album, the band had one question in the forefront of their collective mind: Is life an unhappy ending, or do we become part of a bigger movement to more positive things?

Across the album's nine tracks, this conundrum is explored in many and meaningful ways, their subtle take on melancholic folk-pop conjuring a bewitching atmosphere that hangs over every inch of the album. unhappy ending thrives within the world it creates for itself, one of distinctive colours and shapes that feel intimate and familiar but always slightly off-kilter, as if you've momentarily stepped into someone else's dream. It sings of love and loss and the unwieldy connection between those two things, in ways that feel quietly radiant and beguiling, caught in an alluring contrast. Recorded at a residential studio in Oxfordshire which they used as a retreat from the business of London fleshed-out and toyed with over time with their acclaimed producer Ian Davenport (Slowdive, Gaz Coombes, Radiohead's Philip Selway) who encouraged the duo to lean into the wilder parts of their creativity. Inspired, musically, by the spiritual moments of Alice Coltrane, the freeness of Miles' 'Bitches Brew', with a sprinkling of Talk Talk's 'Spirit Of Eden' in its colourful unravelling, unhappy ending is an enveloping experience, touching upon universal themes but all shone through the lens of Karima's signature perspective.