Chartreuse – “Morning Ritual” (Released 10th November 2023)

Description

//Communion//

£21.99 – 1xLP

On their long-awaited debut album Morning Ritual, Chartreuse have found the light in the darkness, sifting through the ruins of an anxious age in order to find the hope in it

“There’s a strange optimism in pulling all of your negative traits out, revising and reviewing them, and then putting them back, in order,” says Mike Wagstaff, of the band’s intricate, gorgeous songwriting.

Chartreuse resist easy definition. The Black Country four-piece have been close friends since they were at college. In 2013, Mike and Harriet Wilson started playing folk music together (“We were not good at all,” laughs Harriet), and a year later, they added a rhythm section, with the addition of Mike’s brother Rory on drums and Perry Lovering on bass. Mike and Rory live together in Kidderminster in the West Midlands, while Harriet and Perry live just ten minutes away. They are very close friends and the songwriting is an extension of this intimacy. Their songs might find Harriet singing Mike’s lyrics, or vice versa. “It takes a lot of trust, because the songs are not short of emotion,” says Harriet.

Tracklisting:

1. all seeing all the time
2. backstroke
3. switch it on, switch it off
4. who bites down
5. shield from bedlam
6. agitated
7. never to be real
8. whippet
9. morning ritual
10. this could be anything
11. are you looking for something
12. sorcerer’s eyes