Otherish confront the willingly gullible amongst us with their hardest-hitting offering yet.
Release Date: Out Now
Label: Self Release
Formats: Digital
They’re back again! And, this time, Otherish really mean it. Our favourite grouping of multi-instrumentalists pull no punches with their latest single, Used Up Useless Useful Idiot as they confront the willing gullibility of a populace taken in by the lies and devious manipulation of those who aspire to lead us – and the similar gullibility of those same leaders who rely on their deceit to raise their standing on the world stage.
Used Up Useless Useful Idiot provides a timely preview of the forthcoming fourth Otherish album – provisional title When I Was You, release date to be confirmed in due course. We loved the band’s 2023 offerings, Gone Wrong Rainbow Blues and How Lucky We Are Being Us and Each Other and, if this latest single is anything to go by, When I Was You (or whatever it might end up being called) is promising to be another corker.
Just in case you haven’t been paying attention, let’s recap. Otherish are a quartet of multi-instrumentalists, each of whom like to swim in the less-populated waters of the musical torrent. Brothers Paul and Mark Bradley and co-conspirator Francis Kane all hail from Belfast, whilst George Claridge – the creator and co-producer of this latest single – is from Winchester. Whilst Otherish’s music is riddled with comparators and points of reference – and the new single is no exception, as we’ll see – when taken as a whole, it’s utterly unclassifiable. Electronica? Pop? Folk? – you never know until you crack open the parcel and when you do, there’s always a pleasant surprise waiting.
Used Up Useless Useful Idiot has been described as a song that features “…ridiculously human guitar happenings, rumbustious drumkit and superweird backing vocals.” That’s a description that takes us part-way to capturing the sound of the record in words. I’d also describe it as a song with a raw-edged, dystopian Bowie sound, folky in parts, with a solid drum rhythm, some nice guitar fills and an intense, strained vocal that fits perfectly with the lyrical content.
And its those lyrics that provide the real intrigue that lurks inside Used Up Useless Useful Idiot. With lines like: “You find it so easy to lie, even as those who listen to you die,” George hits out at those (and it’s easy to suggest names…) who practice deceit and manipulation, before turning his attention to the deceived and manipulated by asking: “Do you believe those powers that be see you still breathing in their future?” A simple question that needs to be repeatedly asked.
It’s perhaps appropriate to leave it to George Claridge to summarise this most biting of songs: “This music is a short, sharp, toe-tapping rumination upon the motivation and destination of those prepared to do anything to ingratiate themselves with the worldly power they crave – which in turn sees them as disposable as it does everyone else.”
Used Up Useless Useful Idiot: Another fine record from Otherish.
Watch the official video to Used Up Useless Useful Idiot here:
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