Melbourne pop-punk outfit Between You & Me have today delivered their long-awaited sophomore album Armageddon and they’ve done it in full force.
Armageddon is a gut-punch of a record, featuring ten thrilling and heart-on-the-sleeve tracks, including ‘Go To Hell’ a belting collaboration with Mikaila Delgado of Yours Truly.
Given the way of the world over the last two years, the making of (the aptly titled) Armageddon was not without its setbacks – all of which drove the direction of the body of work.
“Whilst it took three years between releases, the journey to release ‘Armageddon’ has certainly shaped the way it sounds,” says frontman Jake Wilson. “The past 18 months has given us the chance to pause and reflect on the opportunities that we have in front of us. We get to write and perform music for people across the world and this release has become monumental for us. Whilst it has been an extremely difficult period for our band to navigate, ‘Armageddon’ certainly wouldn’t have turned out the way it did without all the challenges along the way.”
In another bout of good news, Between You & Me have also announced their largest headline tour to date for next year when they’ll be taking Armageddon on the road.
Before then, as a special treat for Music Feeds, Between You & Me have kindly taken us through the new album track by track. Have a read (and a listen) below.
1. Pleased To Meet You
The first track on the album and the last song to be written, ‘Pleased to Meet You’ was one of only two songs that was written whilst we were in the studio. We realised that we didn’t have a song that suited the opening track spot and thus ‘Please to Meet You’ was formed. An upbeat track that has a characteristic BYAM feel. Lyrically, the song is an introduction to Armageddon, and it ties the themes together.
2. Deadbeat
The other track that was written whilst we were in the studio, ‘Deadbeat’ certainly shows a different side of BYAM. The track was originally a trap song and we realised that it was not going with work on the record, so it got reworked. What begins as a raw soloed acoustic track, ends with a dirty breakdown – the heaviest track we’ve ever written. The song ending with the breakdown was quite contentious as we realised that the song had the potential to be a single but realised that the breakdown was not ‘radio friendly’. In the end, it stayed, and we’re excited to play it live.
3. Butterflies
‘Butterflies’ was written whilst we were in an Airbnb in Canada, witnessing the pandemic escalate and waiting to record the album. Once we returned to Australia, the song came to life. Lyrically, the song is a love song that I wrote about my girlfriend.
4. Change
‘Change’ is the oldest single that we’d written for this record and was probably one of the strongest demos we had recorded. The track was written during a writing weekend we had in Melbourne. We were so excited after we wrote the track that we ended up going out for some celebratory drinks. ‘Change’ was written after the news that Trump had officially agreed to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, so it’s basically a big fuck you to him. The chorus gang vocal was a lot of
fun to record.
5. Goldfish
The oldest track to feature on the album, ‘Goldfish’ is a diss track about our bad experiences in the music industry. The most pop-punk track on the record, it’s certainly a track for our older fans.
6. Supervillain
James brought ‘Supervillain’ to the table and the bass line really caught my attention. The song was a little left field from some of our older stuff, but I certainly had fun writing for it. When going through the demos in the studio, we had numerous production ideas for the track, so thankfully it made the album. We thought that because it was a little different from anything we’d previously released, it would be an awesome first single to release. Especially since it had been over two years since we’d previously released music.
7. Real World
‘Real World’ was the most challenging song on the record to finish. Chris wrote the song in mid-2019 and I struggled writing vocal ideas for it, so it didn’t evolve from the demo idea. Once we were in the studio, our producer Sam Guaiana really pushed for the track to make the record, so we recorded it. As we were approaching the end of studio time, I was stressing out as I could not come up with vocal ideas for the song that I was happy with. Sam ended up returning to Canada and I worked with Jack Newlyn to finish the song. We ended up completely changing the vibe of the song and it ended up being one of my favourite songs on the record.
8. Better Days
‘Better Days’ was the biggest surprise track for the record. The production on this track took it to another level and I am stoked with how it came together. It’s probably my favourite track on the record.
9. Go To Hell Feat. Yours Truly
Felt like we went to hell and back to get this one recorded, but it’s obviously all worth it. ‘Go To Hell’ and its numerous working titles was the last song on the record to be finished. I re-recorded the vocals for this track about 4 months after we were in the studio as I felt it wasn’t strong enough when I compared it with the rest of the songs on the record. I asked my friend Mikayla Delgado to feature on the track and she absolutely killed it! ‘Go To Hell’ went from being the one track on the record I wasn’t super happy with, to being our biggest single.
10. Armageddon
The title track, ‘Armageddon’ was the first track written for the record – setting the concept for the album. In an ironic way, many of the key themes that I wrote about for this record came to reality with the global pandemic that eventuated and tried its best to derail this record. ‘Armageddon’ is an anthemic rock song and could only be the last track on the album. The song culminates with the lyrics “Welcome to the Armageddon – I hope that you enjoyed your stay. It’s time to get settled into the bed you made”.
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‘Armageddon’ is out today.
