Failure – Location Lost
Release Date: 26th April 2026
Label: Failure Records/Arduous Records/Virgin Music Group
With a level of sonic exploration that only thirty years experience can render, alt-rock cult classics Failure deliver a phantasmal and unexpected approach in their seventh studio album Location Lost.
Frequently cited as ‘your band’s favourite band’, and historically known for occupying the fringes of the post grunge/shoegaze scene, (vocalist) Ken Andrews and co stretch out these new slow burns into unanticipated and uncharted territory. Following on from their 2021 studio release Wild Type Droid, and a subsequent documentary (Every Time You Lose Your Mind) and concert film (We Are Hallucinations), this new sense of divergence comes as a result of Andrews’ unmooring recovery from serious back surgery. With this unfamiliar shift of roles within the songwriting sessions encouraging the group to keep things less calculated, combined with Andrews’ deeply personal lyrics towards his own medical trauma, the band exchange any attempt of returning to old ground for a transient risk of uncertainty.
Opening track ‘Crash Test Delayed’ bathes listeners with an array of ambient pads and guitar swells, flittering between listless optimism and driving rhythms that nod towards the beat of Steven Wilson’s repertoire. In ‘The Rising Skyline’, things are stripped back for a gentle acoustic number, featuring none other than long time fan Hayley Williams. This lead single effortlessly smoulders towards its crescendo, beautifully entwined with Williams’ rich additions that are as intentional as they are harmonious.
‘Solid State’ lifts the energy with a decadently woozy guitar line straight out of the Loveless playbook. With thick fuzzed out choruses that would make Billy Corgan jealous, and euphoric spiking synth lines, this new age shoegaze anthem is wonderfully refreshing as it is in vogue. Amongst this collection of vastly eclectic tracks, ‘Someday Soon’ plays with hypnotic arpeggiating keyboard lines and fluttering modulation throughout a spacious pocket groove, while ‘Location Lost’ flirts with tried and tested drone guitar hooks and infectiously gloomy sing-a-longs. Closing the record is ‘Moonlight Understands’, a crushingly dreamlike sonnet that gradually swallows its audience with building vocal layers, and creeping tides of white noise.
With all things considered surrounding the hurdles climbed for the records conception, as well as the spark of playing to new found audiences in this second coming (the group notably took a seventeen year hiatus), Location Lost suitably distances itself from retreading old ground, favouring a “moral imperative” to see things through a new phase, and wholeheartedly trusting this leap of faith with significant success.
FFO: Low / Quicksand / Hum
Recommended Track: Solid State