If the rumble of Leeds’ backstreets had a soundtrack, it might just sound like Eades’ new single ‘Backwards’. With dust-kicking twang and emotional excavation, the five-piece return in their most introspective and sonically evolved form yet, and it’s not just a detour, it’s a full reroute.
Out now via the ever-tasteful Breakfast Records, ‘Backwards’ is the second teaser from forthcoming album Final Sirens Call (due 18th September) and it’s a curious, compelling blend of alt-country licks, post-punk grit, and lo-fi melancholy. Built around drummer Dan Clifford-Smith’s groove-first backbone, the track trades the band’s familiar art-rock chaos for something looser, more spacious, and frankly, more grown-up. It’s still restless, still sharp, but you get the sense they’re peeling back the noise to let some sunlight in.
Lyrically, Tom O’Reilly takes aim at the way we bend ourselves to fit other people’s darkness, a kind of social self-erasure that’ll land hard for anyone who’s played the contortionist in their own story. “Changing yourself for people you might not even like,” he explains. And you hear that self-doubt coil itself into the riffwork and tremble behind every reverb-washed vocal. The song’s roots apparently started in 90s Wire worship, but the final form feels more Wilco by way of a Yorkshire basement, messy in just the right places.
This is a band unafraid to rip it up and start again, and ‘Backwards’ is a product of that freedom. After the high-adrenaline rattle of 2022’s Delusion Spree and the Americana-tinged hues of 2024’s Fight or Flight EP, Final Sirens Call looks set to be the sound of a group refusing to stand still. The fingerprints of mid-90s indie run all over this new era, but it’s the recording process, powered by their new Bam Bam Studios, that’s helped them shape these influences into something unmistakably Eades.
Frontman Harry Jordan, now helming production from within his own four walls, credits their new creative digs with unlocking the sonic playground they’d previously been shut out of. “We got really into artists like Wilco, Richard Swift… records that experiment with reverb and effects to put the listener into interesting spaces,” he says. That sense of depth, of exploration, pulses through ‘Backwards’ — whether it’s the haze of its layered mix or the subtle ache tucked inside its refrain.
But make no mistake, this isn’t a band gone soft. The undercurrent of urgency, the tightness, the snarling underbelly that’s always made Eades such a captivating live prospect? Still here. Still hungry. They’ve just let it breathe.
With two more singles en route before Final Sirens Call lands in full, Eades are pacing themselves like a band with serious staying power. And with headline shows confirmed across the UK this autumn, including a big homecoming at The Brudenell, there’s plenty more fire to come.
For now, ‘Backwards’ is a statement of intent: open-hearted, well-crafted, and brave enough to embrace change. It’s a track that looks itself in the mirror and asks the big questions — then sets them to a melody you’ll hum for days.
FFO: Wilco, Yard Act on a comedown, Richard Swift, early Deerhunter
🎧 ‘Backwards’ is out now
🎟️ Catch Eades live this autumn
📀 Final Sirens Call drops 18th September via Breakfast Records
THE FRONT ROW 
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