Spector Prove Themselves The Saviours We Didn’t Know We Needed On Latest Single ‘Felony’

When Spector were nominated by NME as their Villain of the Year in 2013 – an award most recently won by Jacob Rees-Mogg – it was perhaps a sign that the band may struggle to capitalise on their early hype. 

A decade on from their debut album, which spawned what is still an indie-disco floor filler in ‘Chevy Thunder’, it’s fair to say they haven’t quite managed to replicate the success of those early days. 

Their latest LP ‘Now or Whenever’ was a marvellous run-through of classic noughties English indie as well as experimental new avenues for the band. It was the London outfit at their unabashed and boastful best, yet it barely managed to scrape into the top 40. That is more a slight on the British public’s desire for guitar music as a whole rather than anything the band could meaningfully control; still, Spector seemed to have the world at their feet for a moment. 

On their latest single ‘Felony’, released just a matter of months after ‘Now or Whenever’, Spector manage to carry on doing what they do best. The groove-fuelled bass and pulsing synthesisers are accompanied by a more subdued and melancholic vocal performance from Fred Macpherson, whose trademark over-the-top anthemic performances are usually the cornerstone of any Spector song. 

“Sitting in my Corsa / Asking how far this car goes?” croons Macpherson. It’s an almost direct contradiction to the band's most famous lyric – “Tonight I’ll take your father’s car and drive, drive, drive!”, a fact surely not lost on the singer. If Spector were once dreaming of Chevys, they may well now have to settle for Corsas.  

The landscape of music has changed irreversibly in a decade; with the rise of streaming and the supposed endless nails being driven into the coffin of guitar-based outfits telling us all to give up on one of the UK’s most historically fruitful scenes. However, ‘Now or Whenever’ reached number 3 in the UK record store charts, and with such passionate live shows, Spector may well have found themselves a nice little niche. It helps that their releases (despite not getting the recognition they deserve) are some of the best produced by England’s last bastion of a time gone by. 

As long as there is a Spector, that final nail can be put back in the box. 

James Ogden 

Image: ‘Felony’ Official Single Cover