On a debut album shot through with grief and emotion, the deep, intimate friendship between the members of Low Girl fuels an almost telepathic interplay. Is It Too Late To Freak Out? sees the indie four-piece intermingle their voices and guitar melodies while vivid, endlessly curious soundscapes sprawl into extended vamps, holding tight to both tension and tenderness. It’s a collection filled with exploratory songs that unfold with momentum, the sound of a group of musicians who are deeply attuned to each other.

At its heart is the idea of telling one’s own story: how much to share, how much to keep for oneself – two questions frontperson Sarah Cosgrove asked herself while writing these 11 tracks. Here, she taps into painfully universal themes without being too overt: mental illness, family dynamics, ghosting, feeling small in a big world. “Our music speaks to triumph in the face of misery,” she explains. “It’s about turning those darker moments into something you feel like you've overcome, and pushing towards making yourself a better person.”

Since 2021’s peppy Big Now EP, Low Girl’s singles have been postcards from that journey, and Is It Too Late To Freak Out? is a fully-realised dispatch from this same pathway – imbued with an urgency, ambition, and devastating potency only hinted at until now. In the past four years, the band’s lives have changed considerably. As the accolades have accrued – airplay across BBC Radio 1, 6Music, and Radio X, slots at Reading Festival and SXSW in Austin, support from DIY and Spotify – they have also spent time on the road, performing headline tours as well opening for the likes of The Murder Capital, Swim Deep and Pom Poko.

Low Girl initially started out as a solo endeavour for Sarah, as a means of exploring a tumultuous inner world through art. Over time, the project has expanded to include her sibling Tom (drums), and bassist/guitarist Bradley Taylor and keyboardist Toby Morgan, whom she met while studying at Lincoln University. As an independent act, the creation of Low Girl’s debut was a process unadulterated by commercial constraints or expectations; the band can attest to the thrill of an ever-changing road map. “We want it to be hard for people to pin us down and put us into a category,” Bradley affirms.

The result is a collection of astounding sonic range – from colossal hooks that soar over waves of distortion (‘Doing My Time’, ‘2007’), to mixing layered textures and horn flourishes (‘Driveway’). Written and recorded between Bedford and rural Yorkshire, Low Girl were intentional about ensuring the sonic diversity of the album, nodding to the atmospheric dream-pop of Canadian group Alvvays, as well as Bradley’s lifelong love of emo. ‘Handbrake’, an exhilarating adventure in genre-hopping, throbs and glistens with a quietly ecstatic joy, while ‘Overgrown’ offers a deeper foray into unexpected territory, melding distorted riffs with pop-facing vocal lines.

Is It Too Late To Freak Out?, therefore, is the result of absolute devotion to the craft and fine-tuning. Low Girl understand what it means to fight for the music, to make it the best it can be; the more hardships they have had to weather as individuals, the more precious their moments of collaboration have become.

Stirring centrepiece ‘Ctrl’ – which speaks to the complex afflictions of living life with chronic obsessive-compulsive disorder – was born from a particularly affecting moment in the studio. “I remember feeling like I had a headache, because I was ruminating so deeply over some unfinished lyrics,” Sarah explains. “I knew I had to express exactly how I felt in order to set my own narrative; to go for gold while remaining aware of my own vulnerabilities.”

Created by Toby, who has a background in graphic design, the album’s collage-style artwork offers a way of communicating trauma in a way that words alone cannot. “On the cover image, there are dozens of small details, drawings and broken things. All of this reflects the content of the music, too: it’s purposely non-linear,” he explains.

Crucially, however, the album ends on an uplifting note. The seven minute-long ‘I Love All My Friends’, which features a gorgeously-arranged piano outro, engages with feelings once locked away – the give-and-take between happiness and clarity. The song’s title is repeated like a mantra in order to ground its author, bringing her back down to Earth as the realisation dawns: one’s close friends will always be there when everything else seems to be crumbling.

“Working on that song felt like a form of mindfulness,” Sarah affirms. “It made me realise that when you're going through difficult times, that's when you grow the most; that's when you can feel the most connected to the world around you.”

 Visceral, anthemic and alive, Is It Too Late To Freak Out? is built on a pact made between four best friends to wade through the mess together. The creation of the album has allowed Low Girl to look towards a future filled with promise, not shying away from painful experiences but instead embracing them as part of the band’s rich, intricate tapestry.

This is a 14+ event (Under 18s to be accompanied by an adult)

Brudenell Social Club

Low Girl

Mollie Coddled

Rifka

Gigs

Leeds

Hyde Park Book Club

Bradford-born, London-based Laura Groves is a multi-disciplinary artist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter closely associated with XL Records, collaborating closely with favourite artists of ours like Actress, Richard Russell’s Everything is Recorded project, Sampha, Joviale, Fabiana Palladino, Samantha Morton and Darkstar. An impecable selector of improvised music too on her long running NTS show Desire Paths, it's evident that the musical world Laura builds is considered and impressive

Coming back for a Yorkshire homecoming post the release of her Bella Union backed EP 'Yes', Laura Groves visits Hyde Park Book Club this November

This is an 14+ event

Super Friendz

Laura Groves

Laura Groves - Dream Story

Alice Kim

Carefully pushing the boundaries of what modern Irish folk can look and sound like, Junior Brother is an idiosyncratic, challenging, and richly lyrical singer/songwriter from Co. Kerry. His much-anticipated third album, The End, is officially announced and due to arrive on September 5th via Strap Originals, a label forged with love by Pete Doherty of The Libertines.

Following the success of his 2024 single Take Guilt, Junior Brother offers another taste of his upcoming LP with Small Violence, a powerful track that addresses the growing influence of misinformation and the escalating wave of conspiracy-fueled hatred.

Speaking about the new track, Junior Brother says: “Small Violence follows a character pulled in by a small few who enjoy using violent words to stoke real violence further down the line. The intro riff was heavily inspired by the Opening Titles of “The Blood on Satan's Claw”, a Folk Horror from 1971 which I highly recommend to anyone except the sensible.”

The End is a deeply instinctive yet carefully considered response to the chaos of modern life, with Junior Brother weaving the recent years of upheaval into the eerie folklore of Fairy Forts. These ring-shaped earth mounds, scattered across the Irish countryside, are known to possess an energy that can bewilder, curse, or even lead the unwary astray. Stepping into one is to risk losing yourself—both physically and spiritually. To Junior Brother, this ancient folklore mirrors the disorienting reality of today’s world.

“The sound of the album is supposed to take the organic instruments of Irish traditional music and lift them somewhere else,” Junior Brother explains, “like the otherworldly Irish music sometimes heard from Fairy Forts at twilight on country roads, impossible to recreate upon hearing.” The End captures this essence, blending the raw textures of traditional Irish music with spectral, unearthly elements.

Much of the album’s inspiration was drawn from UCD’s Folklore Collection on duchas.ie, “I delved into the manuscripts—endless eyewitness accounts of Fairy Forts being stepped into and the land altering, the familiar mutating,” Junior Brother shares. “Farmers, teachers, the sober, the smart—all losing their way home one way or the other.” In these uncanny tales of displacement and confusion, he found striking parallels to the instability and distortion of contemporary life.

Thematically, The End explores forces that work against nature (New Road, Welcome to My Mountain), the rise of the far-right (Small Violence, Today My Uncle Told Me), and confrontations with mortality (Old Bell, Start Digging). Through the lens of rural Irish folklore, the album reflects the bewildering madness of the present moment.

“The title The End represents the moment after being led astray, when the grip of madness releases you and you suddenly see your way home,” says Junior Brother. “It may reflect the doom of a world gone mad, but it also represents the end of darkness, and the start of a new road.”

'Wry songs of anxiety and frustration'

The Guardian

'One of the island’s all-time songwriting greats.'

Brian Coney, The Thin Air

'Junior Brother’s voice is an unlovely but strangely compelling thing and his wayward guitar style is brittle and guttural... You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll think.'

Alan Corr, RTE.ie

Junior Brother

Junior Brother - Witches Willow

Pearl Fish

Synth-poppers and party starters Home Counties are returning to Leeds once more after a series of unforgettable shows over the years. This time taking over Hyde Park Book Club, the thrilling and eccentric six-piece will be bringing tracks from their incredible debut album + lots more

This is an 18+ event

Home Counties

Dad Bod

14+, under 18's must be accompanied by an adult.

SJM Concerts

Murdo Mitchell 

Murdo Mitchell - Faded

Murdo Mitchell

Futuresound

Old Mervs

Like an undescended testicle en route to its final destination, Christmas is a-coming!

And nothing yells Yule louder than Sean Bean in full on medieval mode, challenging you all to a sackful of seasonal games, hellbent on getting you all giddy.

So come join Edinburgh Comedy Award Winner Adam Riches, (Cats Does Countdown), as he hits the road once more with his (k)night of chaotic buffoonery, to give you bastards a Christmas present you’ll never forget.

**PRAISE FOR ADAM RICHES:**

“There’s no-one else quite like him”

★★★★★ Times

★★★★★ Independent

★★★★★ Telegraph

★★★★★ Scotsman

★★★★★ Time Out

★★★★★ Chortle

★★★★★ Fest

★★★★★ Beyond the Joke

This is an 16+ event

Chump's Comedy

Adam Riches AS Sean Bean in ‘THE 12 BEANS OF CHRISTMAS’

comedy

Comedy

This is a 16+ event (Under 18s accompanied).

FORM

FORM Presents

Ebi Soda

Join Matthew C. Whitaker (HENGE) and Shunya for an evening of music celebrating the release of Whitaker’s second solo album, *Songs for the Weary* \- a collection of graceful compositions incorporating classical guitar, rich string arrangements, and subtle electronics. Offering a serene listening experience, the album unfolds across eight gentle pieces woven with intricate harmonies and warm instrumentation. Co-produced and arranged in collaboration with Alan Keary (Shunya), the performance will also feature songs from Whitaker’s 2016 debut, *The Man with the Anvil Hat*, alongside a solo set by Shunya and special reworkings of select songs from the HENGE back catalogue.

Hyde Park Book Club

3 k abonné.e.s

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