Gloom Rockers If I Die Tonight return with new single ‘Clouds (Oh, What A Day)’!

Emerging from the self-imposed fog of an extended hiatus, gloomy Alt-Rockers 'If I Die Tonight' have returned. ‘Clouds (Oh, What A Day)’, the bands most recent, and perhaps most beguiling, release, heralds a subtle, though substantive, shift for the pair creatively.  

Following the release of two sonically-hefty singles in 2022, the Manchester/London-based duo all but disappeared, save for the occasional tease on Instagram that something was coming. Having spent the two-year long hiatus carefully cultivating their sound and image, ‘Clouds (Oh, What A Day)’ is a worthy slice of ambitious Alt-Rock, shirking the tropey-shackles of the genre and announcing the band's return with zeal. 

Photo Credit: Harry Proctor

Steadily swelling across an admirable, five-minute-plus runtime, the track's atmosphere is palpably morose, with Jacob Saunders' Dylan-esque vocals lamenting the effect bad weather can have upon an individual, a condition known as SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Opening with sparse instrumentation, only the folk-adjacent strumming of an acoustic guitar supporting Jacob’s vocal-line, it is around the one minute mark of the track that the true form of ‘Clouds (Oh, What A Day)’ begins to reveal itself. 

Drifting in from somewhere out of reach, the brooding, forlorn vocals of Austel, a London-based musician and producer, layer themselves on top of Jacob's breathy delivery, as the measured beat of Nat Jepegnanam’s bass drum kicks in and the distortion pedal flips on. 

Consistently rising and falling, ebbing and flowing, the track dangles the prospect of a cathartic release of tension in front of the listener for the duration of its runtime, subverting their expectations at each turn. Finally, however, the listener is rewarded, with a brawny guitar-solo cleaving through the back third of the track with propulsive gusto, as Austel lets out a distant wail and Nat obliterates the crash cymbal.

If I Die Tonight wear their influences, such as Deftones, Nirvana and Thrice, on their sleeve but, with ‘Clouds (Oh, What A Day)’, they have delivered a track that feels nuanced, personal and singular in artistic voice.