The Guest List Take On Modern Masculinity With New Single ‘If Ever Your Devil Is Kind’

The Guest List return with a single that picks at a subject most bands address only in broad gestures. ‘If Ever Your Devil Is Kind’, out now, marks the first preview of the Manchester group’s debut album Something Real, and it steps directly into the murk of modern masculinity without reaching for easy condemnation or tidy resolution.

The track is brooding and tightly coiled, driven more by tension than release. The lyrics avoid the preachy tone that sinks so much music about gendered experience, opting instead for a self-implicating first person. The result is a song that sounds less like an argument and more like someone thinking aloud in a room where the walls are closing in.

Little detail has emerged about the full LP, but the band have been sharpening this material live, and ‘If Ever Your Devil Is Kind’ suggests the record won’t pull its punches. The single’s arrival follows a slow build that has positioned The Guest List outside the purely nostalgic post-punk revival, closer to a line of Manchester guitar music that values unease over swagger.

The single is streaming now. Something Real follows later this year.