The Nightingales return with ‘The Awful Truth’, a modern mutant music hall interpretation of the day’s news, a haunting jolt into realism narrated with all the angst of an insistent, slightly dishevelled late-night newscaster. Following the widely celebrated Stewart Lee-narrated King Rocker film in 2020, the curtain has finally been raised on the magic of the “long serving punk/alternative rock volunteer” (The Quietus). As pertinent as ever, The Nightingales release a poignant tirade on modern times heralded, quite rightly, as ‘The Awful Truth’.

Opening cut, ‘The New Emperor’s New Clothes’ is an upbeat immersive eruption with a thumping percussive piano holding proceedings in order; think the Velvets meet Fairport Convention in a crowded boozer, still waiting for their man. ‘Same Old Riff’ recalls Bowie’s ‘Queen Bitch’ rekindling the class war struggles and throwing sharp focus on the national unrest in the summer of 2024.