Released: April 28
The Lottery Winners unleash a conceptual collection of 10 angst-ridden anthems with their aptly titled third full-length album.
Conceived in the wake of the Covid years, Anxiety Replacement Therapy follows the band’s breakthrough records The Lottery Winners (2020) and Something to Leave the House For (2022), with its subject matter traversing the magic of mental health struggles.
“Shakes me like a hurricane / A fly in my lemonade / Cuts me like a razor / All the mistakes I’ve made,” sings frontman Thom Rylance on the opening track Worryserving as an introduction to an album that reflects his personal journey in recent years.
“Each of the albums in my collection is a self-help tape for me,” explains the vocalist. “If I’m listening to Paul Simon’s Graceland, it’s because I know it’s going to put me in a good mood. If I play “The Queen Is Dead” by The Smiths, it’s because I want to embrace the feeling of sadness. We wanted to present ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’ as a self-help tape for anyone who plays it.”
Bassist Kate Lloyd adds: “We know how much our band means to people. If this album gives someone support and keeps them going, that would mean more than anything.”
The songs themselves are loud and bombastic; a cover for the thinly veiled lyrical content that speaks openly about various stages of mental illness, from depression and stress to loneliness and obsession. Sertraline – named after the antidepressant – is perhaps the most obvious example, with songs like A burning house and Jenny also fast rockers with deeper, often darker messages buried beneath the noise.
From the mid-tempo moments, Long way down is an instant classic, with an all-encompassing nineties influence that’s both throwback and authentic – fitting for a collection featuring contributions from musical greats like Boy George, Frank Turner and Shaun Ryder.
“It’s incredible to have the brains of people like Sean, Frank and George in our work,” adds Tom of their contribution to Money, A letter to myself and It disappointed me, respectively. “I feel humbled to be in a position where our idols say yes to us.
Complete with interludes from a mysterious narrator, this is an album that should be played front to back, its closing track and title track a hypnotic number that ties together the songs and themes on the LP for a strangely disturbing conclusion that feeds back into the concept .
Arriving at the tail end of a stream of mental health albums born during the pandemic, ‘Replacement Anxiety Therapy’ stands out for several reasons; a concept album at its core, the project is inherently personal yet speaks to a range of emotions that have become part of the daily lives of many, a finely crafted collection of commercial hits that pack a meaningful punch.
“Replacement Anxiety Therapy” is available for pre-order now.