The Others – Difficulties Understanding – Edge of Arcady

Since the dawn of time, bands have crowed from the safe towers of record label insulated financial stability that everything they do is for the fans, that they would keep making their music for the passion, no matter what. But when the chequebooks get put away the tune tends to change, TikTok videos get made, records get released in a plethora of formats, solo tours happen, ethics get watered down until the ever-inevitable eventual silence.

How many bands can you say have done things the other way around? Well, we’ll tell you one right now: The Others. As the high-profile hype has hushed, The Others sound has kept growing stronger, their records getting, frankly, better and better.

Fifth album ‘Difficulties Understanding’ came out to limited fanfare, just a post on frontman Dominic Masters’ own Facebook page, bearing the album’s stark sleeve showing all 7 band members positioned in a London backstreet (not unlike the Ramones’ self-titled sleeve), and some Whatsapp messages direct to the band’s ever-fervant 853 Kamikaze Stagediving Division devotees, but in sharp conflict with the low key nature of the launch, it turns out the record is quite solidly their strongest yet.

Last album ‘Look At You All Now’ threatened to show the extent of what the newly expanded lineup was capable of, well-bolstered in number since their 4-piece days of yore, and their latest has every single one of the members at the top of their game, Masters’ vocals at their demonically self-assured best fronting the most rabid and diverse compositions The Others have put their moniker on.

Overwhelmingly, ‘Difficulties Understanding’ is a seriously hard and dark LP, a brutal mass of post-punk blues. From the get-go, ‘Everything You Say’ is four minutes of pissed-off, sustained power, followed up by ‘What Is Right For You’, a bass-lead, rumbling seven-minute slinky epic, full of scorching guitar and lilting keyboard loops, lead by what could be described as the singer duetting with himself, starting at his lowest baritone, then flipping to natural anger whilst musing on personal choice.

‘For The Living’ coldly and sardonically chuckles “What you choose, I don’t want/ What you chase, I don’t need” before ‘Nightmare’ speeds in, all fast drums and face-to-face with honest despair: “It’s another nightmare, I wake up and killed someone/ It’s another nightmare, I wake up and I’m 60 years old/ It’s another nightmare, I wake up and got no mum and dad/ It’s another nightmare, I wake up and feeling sad”.

‘Country Song’ brilliantly sounds as if it could fall apart at any moment, an unhinged Pogues-type melody with ragtime piano, disjointed fuzzy guitar swipes, stitched together with frustrated rage declaiming “I need to escape from your fucking gaze”. ‘Right To Negotiate’ takes an 11-minute experimental keyboard scape and peppers it with guitar chimes, ponderous bass, and unfaltering drums as Masters mysteriously states “I write you this song/ cos it’s hard to negotiate with you”.

So all really fucking dark stuff then? Well not quite, as amongst the bleakness there are two glints of the lightest songs The Others have ever come up with. ‘Happy Song’ is the essence of contentment, surf guitars, and a light melody soundtrack blissed out lyrics savoring time away from the grind: “These times are special and I value your time/ Don’t want it to end and go back to toeing the line/ These times are good and these times are happy/ Sun in the sky and the drink’s on the table”. And ‘Brick Lane’ is unashamed, victorious nostalgia, a love song to the birthplace of the group’s fabled beginnings as well as London’s number one bagel shop.

In a world where Idles and Fontaines D.C. are kings with socially aware snipes and doom-laden new-shoegaze, The Others have come back at their angriest, full of fight with a toweringly fierce record, fitting better with their new 2025 contemporaries than their original East London urchin-pack. Whilst the headlines and money-men may have gone (for the time being anyhow), they’re letting the music do the shouting, and the music’s got a fuckload of seething messages to get across – there’s no difficulty in understanding that.

The Others’ fifth studio album ‘Difficulties Understanding’ was produced by Nick Howiantz and Brixton Hill Studios. It was surprise released in its glorious entirety on 9th February 2025 and is available to stream via Bandcamp, where you can name your price. It’s also up on Spotify and Youtube.

And while you’re about it, it’s been 20 whole years since The Others released their self-titled debut album, packing singles This Is For The Poor, Stan Bowles and Lackey. To mark the big occasion, the group is playing a one-off show at London’s 100 Club on 22nd March 2025. Tickets are available now, but we hear they’re selling fast so buy now to avoid excruciating heartache and disappointment. We’ll be there. Come say hi.

You can have a listen to ‘Difficulties Understanding’ on Bandcamp below: