THE FRONT ROW

The Royston Club are back, and they’re not just dipping their toes in the water; they’re cannonballing straight into the deep end with a gritty, heart-on-sleeve single and a massive new album announcement. ‘Glued To The Bed’ lands as the third cut from the upcoming LP Songs For The Spine (out August 8th), and if this track is anything to go by, the lads from Wrexham are gearing up for their most emotionally charged, and sonically ambitious, era yet.

Let’s start with the track. ‘Glued To The Bed’ is a lean, hook-heavy anthem that wastes zero time getting under your skin. Opening with a verse and earworm of a guitar riff, that could soundtrack a sunrise comedown, it builds into a tightly coiled indie-rock stinger, equal parts melancholy and mosh-ready. The production, courtesy of Rich Turvey (Blossoms, Rachel Chinouriri), hits the sweet spot between raw and radio-ready. It doesn’t sand down the band’s scruffier edges; it amplifies them.

Lyrically, it’s a gut-punch. Ben Matthias taps into the kind of post-breakup blues that hit at 2am when you’re too wired to sleep and too drained to move. “I dismiss love as this pretentious, performative thing,” he says about the song, not so much jaded as wounded, still nursing a bruised heart but self-aware enough to recognise the defence mechanisms creeping in. The title itself is perfect, those words feel like a physical state and an emotional metaphor rolled into one. It’s the inertia of heartbreak, the weight of memory, the longing that keeps you stuck exactly where you are.

This is a band not just writing from experience, but growing up in public. If their debut was the messy coming-of-age chapter, Songs For The Spine already promises a next phase with more bite, bigger choruses, and a lot more to say. ‘Glued To The Bed’ doesn’t just bridge the old and new Royston Club sounds, it carves a bold new lane. It’s more reflective than anything on Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars, but no less anthemic. There’s real tension here between vulnerability and bravado, and it makes the song pop with emotional static.

Sonically, they’re still living in that space where sweaty indie venues and late-night radio collide. But listen closely and you’ll hear the experimentation creeping in. The rhythm section has more groove, the layering is more textured, and the whole thing feels a little bit moodier, a little bit heavier, in the best way. Think the swagger of The K’s with the lyrical depth of Fontaines D.C., all polished with a Welsh indie sheen.

And let’s not ignore the rollout here, this isn’t just a single drop, it’s a statement of intent. The band’s second album Songs For The Spine is coming August 8th with all the bells and whistles: special vinyl variants, signed merch bundles, a massive headline tour including a date at the O2 Forum Kentish Town, and a summer festival run that reads like a bucket list, Reading, Leeds, TRNSMT, Latitude, and more.

There’s a real sense of momentum here. After a #16 charting debut and a string of sold-out shows, The Royston Club are no longer the scrappy underdogs, they’re gunning for the main stage, and with tracks like this, they’ve got every right to. You can feel the hunger, the growth, the shift from bedroom dreams to real-world ambition. And crucially, they haven’t lost the DNA that got them here in the first place.

If ‘Glued To The Bed’ is what the spine of this album sounds like, we’re in for something special. It’s emotionally raw, musically rich, and catchy enough to have fans belting the chorus back within seconds. This isn’t just a comeback, it’s a level-up.

Play it loud. Feel it harder. Stay glued.

Add to your playlist if you like:
Heartbreak with guitar bite, festival singalongs tinged with sadness, and indie anthems that punch you in the gut before lifting you up.