Howling Bells Release “Unbroken” Their First Single in Over a Decade
There are moments in your life as a music fan when a record arrives, grabs you by the scruff of the neck, and reminds you why you fell in love with this glorious art form in the first place. For me, one of those moments was Howling Bells’ debut back in 2006 – a sultry, noir-soaked gem that blew me away at a time when I was feeling jaded and close to giving up on “new music.” It reignited the spark. Suddenly, I believed again.
So, when a band you hold close to your heart returns after a decade away, you inevitably feel a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Will they still have it? Will the magic still be there, or will it feel like a pale facsimile of former glories? Well, dear reader, I’m pleased to report that “Unbroken” doesn’t just recapture the flame – it positively burns.
Released today via Nude Records and heralding their first new material since 2014’s Heartstrings, “Unbroken” is quintessential Howling Bells. Dark, brooding guitars coil and shimmer, the atmosphere heavy with tension before lifting skyward, driven by Juanita Stein’s spellbinding voice. “Always been lost in a big dream,” she sings, and it feels less like a lyric and more like a mission statement.
Juanita herself puts it down to the sheer stubbornness and irrational belief that has carried the band through twenty years of shifting sands: “You can either call it childlike or stupidity, but you have to have that in order to believe that something greater can happen. Surviving as a band for over two decades requires extraordinary grit and, to some degree, irrationality. None of it really makes sense, except for the will and the love of the music itself. ‘Unbroken’ is very much a testament to all of this.”
Produced by Ben Hillier (Blur, Depeche Mode, Elbow) at Agricultural Audio Studios, the track comes accompanied by a stripped-back performance video featuring Juanita, her brother Joel, and drummer Glenn Moule back together on stage – a reunion that feels more like destiny than a nostalgia trip.
Of course, they’ve hardly been idle in the intervening years. Juanita has carved out an impressive solo career with four albums, Joel explored new terrain with Glassmaps, and both he and Glenn lent their talents to Brandon Flowers’ touring band. Yet the musical pull of reuniting endured, the thought of new Howling Bells music never completely vanishing into the ether.
Born in Sydney before finding their spiritual home in London, Howling Bells have always existed in that twilight zone where atmosphere and melody collide. Their self-titled debut remains a touchstone, while Radio Wars, The Loudest Engine, and Heartstrings saw them evolve without ever losing their sense of mystery. Then, as Juanita puts it with typical candour, “life just happened.”
Now, with “Unbroken,” the band return not as a nostalgia act or a ghost of their past selves, but as a group who still have something urgent and vital to say. The title is apt, the band never broke up despite the slings and arrows of the music bizz, they remain, quite literally, unbroken.