Horrorful Heights marks a formidable new chapter in The Bevis Frond’s deep and storied catalogue, showcasing the enduring creativity of songwriter, guitarist and frontman Nick Saloman as he moves into yet another decade of recording. Long established as one of the most distinctive voices in British underground rock, Saloman continues to refine the band’s signature blend of melodic psychedelia, wiry guitar epics and sharp, emotionally attuned songwriting. Horrorful Heights offers one of the most approachable entry points to the band’s world in years: a record that gathers their core strengths into a cohesive, vivid set.
Recorded with long-time drummer Dave Pearce and guitarist Paul Simmons, alongside new bassist Louis Wiggett, the album moves fluidly between jangling psych-pop, heavy-lit guitar workouts and pastoral comedown reveries. Wiggett also brings a surprising new colour to the Frond palette, contributing pedal steel to “Best Laid Plans” and “Momma Bear,” recalling early-70s country-tinged British rock from Bronco or Cochise.
The album’s range is wide but sharply defined. “Draining The Bad Blood” channels the classic Bevis Frond mode of melodic guitar pop—cut from the same cloth as longtime fan favourites later covered by Teenage Fanclub and The Lemonheads. “Space Age Eyes,” a concise nine-minute odyssey, nods toward the transcendental explorations of ’70s electric Miles Davis, complete with a blistering solo from Simmons and rhythmic elasticity from Pearce.
The sitar-laden title track, written off-the-cuff while Saloman half-watched a football match, drifts through incense-hazed psychedelia with layered vocals and tumbling tablas—an affectionate echo of the head-shop mysticism he has toyed with throughout the band’s history. Elsewhere, “Mossback’s Dream” splices lysergic leads with the propulsive energy of ’80s American hardcore, forging a hybrid that feels both timeless and entirely its own.
Additional highlights include the Byrds-tinged “Buffaloed,” the swirling narrative freeze-frame of “Silver Insects,” and “That’s Your Lot,” a rapid-moving burst of melancholic euphoria and one of the record’s most immediate songs.
Though unmistakably eclectic, Horrorful Heights presents a focused portrait of The Bevis Frond in 2025 – vital, tuneful and unburdened by nostalgia. Saloman describes the collection simply: the best songs he’d written in recent years, arriving unforced and instinctive. The result is a late-period peak from one of Britain’s most quietly influential underground bands.
FFO: Dinosaur Jr, Guided By Voices, Lemonheads, Teenage Fanclub, Elliot Smith, Juliana Hatfield, Pavement, Neil Young.
