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Taken from Click Roll Boom (Jul 03, 2025)
Sam Lambeth Announces New Album “No Sign Of The Summer” - Set For Release On Friday 8th August
by PR@Click Roll Boom
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When Wolverhampton’s Sam Lambeth purchased Elvis Costello’s The Best of the First Ten Years at age 16, it opened the musical floodgates. “It was like I’d been given an instruction manual on musicianship,” he explains.
He became enamoured with Costello’s ability to retain his Beatles-infused classicism while diversifying into folk, gospel, Americana, jazz and much more. It’s a blueprint Lambeth has tried to follow with his first two solo records, the country rock of 2021’s Love & Exile, and the motown-tinged Walkin’ to Hollywood (2023).
However, there was something Lambeth forgot to take in all those years ago – that Costello also rocked.
“I’d spent a lot of time trying to craft quite ornate, esoteric music, but anyone that’s familiar with Costello’s back catalogue will know every so often he cranks up the guitars and makes raw, red-blooded rock and roll albums,” Lambeth says. “After two albums that were quite precise and calculated in their creations, I thought it’d be really fun and liberating to just head into the studio, turn the amps up loud and make a full-on rock record.”
Lambeth had tons of old songs tucked away that just didn’t fit his previous records’ styles, some dating back to not long after he purchased that Costello record. Growing up, he’d also fallen hard for power pop – the fuzzy melodies, the nostalgic ethos, the glorious harmonies. Reared on a healthy diet of Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, Big Star and Matthew Sweet, Lambeth set his sights on making a summery grunge record.
Dusting off seven songs was easy, working on the lyrics wasn’t. “These seven songs were all finished, but the lyrics were pretty cringey,” Lambeth laughs. “It was really difficult modifying them because the structure of the songs was set so I had to think of words that fit.”
That’s when he chose the theme of summer. “It feels like more than a season to me,” he explains. “It’s everything – innocence, longing, love, wistfulness, time. I always think back to those six week holidays you have and all those hopes, dreams and emotions you get, as well as the ultimate feelings of boredom, longing and despair. It’s quite a transcendent season and I wanted to use it as a kind of metaphor for life, time, love and everything in between.”
The result is No Sign of the Summer, a blistering collection of fizzy grunge pop songs. However, there is a bait and switch, with the record opening with the sorrowful, lo-fi ‘Find Out Why’. This was intentional. “I realised this would be the first record of mine without a harmonica on, and I couldn’t have that,” Lambeth explains. “I recorded this song in one take and I love the rawness of it all. It’s bare, honest and sad. I thought it’d be pretty ballsy to open the record with it. And also just to remember – if only to myself – that this is me.”
‘Jessica’ broods and builds over a hypnotic guitar riff before bursting into the kind of radio-friendly chorus Lambeth seems to do effortlessly. ‘December’ and ‘What Would I Say To You Now’ zip along under frenetic fretwork and sun-drenched harmonies, while ‘When You Take That Train’ and ‘Summer’s Gone’ are beautiful, melodic numbers filled with regret and nostalgia. It’s another consistent collection from a singer-songwriter that is fast becoming a master craftsman.
Sam Lambeth Coverart |
TRACKLISTING:
1: Find Out Why
2: Jessica (My So-Called Life)
4: December
5: When You Take That Train
6: What Would I Say To You Now
7: Summer’s Gone
8: Stewart’s House
UPCOMING GIGS:
24th August – Bridgnorth Music and Arts Festival
13th September – Wolverhampton Dive (HEADLINE)
14th November – Birmingham Night Owl
NO SIGN OF THE SUMMER FACTS:
Produced and mixed by Ryan Pinson
Assisted by Arthur Coslett
Recorded at RML Studios, Wolverhampton
Except ‘Stewart’s House’ produced by Joe Bickley
Recorded at The Cellar Rooms, Wolverhampton
Sam Lambeth: Vocals, guitars, bass
Ryan Pinson: Drums
Gav Medza: Backing vocals
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