Heartbreak? Check. Melancholy guitar licks? Check. A chorus that feels like being 19, freshly ghosted, and staring out of a Megabus window? Double check.
The Mucks return with Need Your Love, a break-up anthem for the uni-bound generation — steeped in all the sad-boy yearning you’d expect when one half of a young couple hops cities and forgets how to reply in under 24 hours.
Michael Dunn’s vocal hits like a throwback to Sam’s Town era Killers but filtered through the reverb-drenched indie haze of 2025. “She used to call me in the morning…” he sings, and you can practically see the cracked iPhone screen and half-eaten Tesco meal deal.
It’s not flashy — but that’s the point. The Mucks aren’t here for gimmicks. This is guitar-led sincerity done right. The slow-burn build lets every lyric breathe until the chorus kicks in like a wave of frustration and regret, spiralling into a massive final crescendo that wouldn’t sound out of place in a packed out O2 Academy.
They’ve clearly spent time honing this — working with Nick Brine (hello pedigree), and it shows. It’s polished without being sterile, with layers of guitars that shimmer and ache all at once.
Is it groundbreaking? Nah. But is it deeply relatable and full of promise? 100%.
If Need Your Love is a sign of what’s to come, The Mucks are sliding quietly but confidently into the “ones to watch” bracket.
🎟️ Catch them at Deadwax, Birmingham on 28 June. Expect limbs.
🖤 One for the playlists labelled “Indie Break-Up Bangers” and “It Wasn’t Meant To End Like This.”
📆 Out 24 April 2025 via Flip Flop Records
🕺 FFO: Inhaler, Sam Fender, early 1975
THE FRONT ROW 
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