The Amazons on new album's 'direction change'

The Amazons have found fresh sounds on their fourth album 21st Century Fiction, heralded by some critics and fans as their best yet. But could it be their last?

Last year I discovered the future of The Amazons was far from certain, and that album number four was taking much longer than expected.

Lead singer Matt Thomson heeded caution against the ambition of stardom, which had once been an essence of the band, when he told me: "The key is survival."

As we sit down together to dissect their new LP, it is clear that it has remained a rough road for the band musically, financially, and emotionally.

The Amazons had been building an entirely different body of work, when the inspiration for the album's lead single Living A Lie struck.

Bassist Elliot Briggs was playing around with a drum loop for another song, but by transposing it to a synth part, it came to life as a new, thudding riff.

Matt recalls: "It was weird, it was strange… we had to go down this route. A whole world opened up. I felt aligned with the music for the first time in ages. We ended up jamming it for hours."

Enthralled, they scrapped almost everything they had been working on to focus on the new sound.

It was a process that also involved a studio adjustment. The band had recorded some parts at Peter Gabriel's Reel World Studios, but moved to the "intimate" Chapel Lane Studios.

Matt reflects on this "completely necessary" direction change: "We could be a lot more reactive and expressive. There wasn't much delay between idea and execution."

The band also looked to collaborate to take the project to another level, working with rock peers Royal Blood in writing and production.

Matt says: "Rock isn't where it was… People online were telling us to stop. My bank balance was telling me to stop."

The completed album leaves no opportunities to spare, including country rock nod Love Is A Dog From Hell, and fresh sound design ideas complemented by brooding, eerie string soundscapes from composer Quentin Lachapele.

Classically-trained singer Ella McRobb joined Matt on vocals to provide operatic performances, and Matt says while that was a "thrill", it meant he had to up his game.

The result is a record which is a far cry from the band that started out in the Readipop rehearsal rooms in Reading, crafting raucous, radio friendly, guitar-led anthems like Junk Food Forever and Black Magic.

And while the album sees the band take in a new sonic influence fit for 2025, it combines it with a richer heritage, a pairing most evident in second single Pitch Black, which picks from The Beatles' Come Together in its rhythm, and, as Matt reveals, Travis Scott's SICKO MODE in its jagged synth bassline.

Drummer Joe Emmett departed the band in 2022, but its remaining members make the most of the resulting new sound, and lead guitarist Chris Alderton shines with solos that gracefully dovetail with the more orchestral instrumentation around him.

Matt believes the band are more in sync than ever: "This is our platform for Chris… one of my fears is that we get through this journey and Chris isn't recognised as one of the best guitarists in the world."

Vocally Matt shows more emotion too, something he credits to producer Pete Hutchings: "Our entire career I have been disappointed with my voice… I've now found someone who understands it, or knows how to frame it."

Matt even tells me he's starting to use an alter-ego, River, as a device to "push the lyrics to places" he could not access before.

The inspirations are not only musical, but literary as well. He talks fondly of Hemingway's process and Bukowski's grit.

This storytelling progression is most evident in Joe Bought A Gun, which arrives ominously after a string-based Intermission, and is a moody, foreboding exclamation mark.

But under the surface there is another layer of self-reference.

The album starts with a realisation that The Amazons are disappointed by their musical legacy. But in their final stand Go All The Way, which grows from an earnest piano ballad, backed by birdsong, to a swelling, motivating symphony, ends with conviction.

This is not born through Matt's hope that this album will sell - the last three all reached the Top Ten - but with an inner acknowledgement that the band themselves have given everything they could.

"The peace I am experiencing comes from the work being pushed to its complete limits," he says.

"We left everything on the page."

If 21st Century Fiction is their last album, it leaves us with something that redefines them, but is still uniquely The Amazons.

21st Century Fiction is out now.

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