With a name presumably lifted from Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s classic track, I See A Darkness, My Best Unbeaten Brother had already caught my eye before I knew anything about them. The deal was sealed when I found out it is the latest moniker of Ben & Adam Parker, the Croydon-based brothers behind Nosferatu D2, Tempertwig and Superman Revenge Squad. For their latest project, they’re joined by bassist Ben Fry and are once again teaming up with the Audio Antihero label, who will share their debut mini-album, the excellently named Pessimistic Pizza, at the end of the month. Today the band are premiering the latest single from it, Blues Fatigue.

The first new record from the Parker brothers since 2013’s Superman Revenge Squad record, There’s Nothing More Frightening Than The Passing Of Time, Pessimistic Pizza is in their own words, a record, “inspired by getting older, getting sadder, getting angrier with a post-Brexit world where The Smiths have been ruined by the actions of the ex-singer”. While much of the album might well dig into the angrier moments, Blues Fatigue despite its title is almost a plea for an escape from that, a request for positivity and hope in the face of hopelessness, as Ben sings, “doesn’t matter what they say, let’s start a new life out of this, when life’s bitter and demeaning, a seaside town that’s out of season, we’ll get by”.

Musically, the track seems to find My Best Unbeaten Brother picking up where they left us all those years ago, as urgent guitars, so wiry Fugazi would be proud of them, meet clattering drum rhythms as Ben’s sing-speak vocals yelp urgently with all the emotional intensity of Los Campesinos! or even a touch of early-Bloc Party. As the music builds and swirls around him, Ben seems to settle into a, perhaps slightly reluctant, vein of optimism, “something tells me everything is gonna be okay, but I’ve got this feeling everything is gonna be okay”. The blues fatigue they describe here is something I think many of us can relate to, a sort of gentle grinding down by a world that can at times feel somewhat hopeless, yet perhaps as My Best Unbeaten Brother do here, the only way through is to see the light at the end of the tunnel, to feel that spark, that jolt of belief that maybe things can be better. Put aside your pessimistic pizza, for at least one meal, with this band in your life I’ve got this feeling everything is gonna be okay.

Pessimistic Pizza is out June 28th via Audio Antihero. For more information on My Best Unbeaten Brother visit https://linktr.ee/mybestunbeatenbrother.