I last saw The Howl & The Hum (in the previous incarnation) in January 2022, when I also had the honour of chatting in person with Sam Griffiths. He told me then that a second album was coming and explained that there were only "vague ideas" being worked on at that point. Sam explained he wasn't sure if the album would be a 'Human Contact 2', something about Covid, or a record which would "encapsulate the future that's been stolen from us in a sense."
Since then, a lot has changed. That band is no more, but TH&TH has continued nevertheless. And the promised album is now with us. 'Same Mistake Twice' has turned out to be a complicated, varied exploration of Sam's (and our) anxieties, particularly around image and what others think of him. In that sense — the way Sam is disarmingly open — TH&TH is continuing in a typical vein. But where 'Human Contact' felt at times jittery and even a little dark (though incredibly beautiful), 'Same Mistake Twice' feels deeper and more thought through. Sam has moved on. He's still introspective and thoughtful (perhaps even more so, now) but there's humour, hope and breakthrough, too.
The album's title track is a brilliant song, arresting both musically and lyrically. It opens with a rapidly picked acoustic guitar, and Sam's vocals come in low and reflective, delivering witty and hard-hitting pairs of lines without letting up. Each of those couplets proves a mic drop moment, and Sam sounds intense yet strangely refreshed.
Those lyrics sometimes come from a place of detachment: a commentary on life experiences: "I never make the same mistake twice; I always aim for a third time." But then we zoom in to specific, sometimes mundane and very real moments: "I climbed through your window, I tripped on the blinds", or "You moved to London, I stayed in Yorkshire avoiding success". There's lots more of this to look out for in the album's other songs, too (look out for the dry, wry and honest observations in 'Dirt', for example). The ability to play with words, mixing metaphor and literalism, or conscious and subconscious commentary, so effortlessly is what makes Sam such a brilliant songwriter. His delivery is unique and unmistakable also, smoothly flitting between points of intimacy and soaring joy or cathartic release.
'Same Mistake Twice' (the song) soon increases in intensity after the muted start, with the acoustic guitar taking on a new edge and the tempo becoming more pulsating, driving into your brain, before a sax enters the picture to provide a melodic vehicle to take the song forward. 'Dirt' picks up the baton in terms of vibe and also its insightful, introspective analysis of Sam’s character and experiences. It’s another very cleverly written song, which provokes empathy as well as enjoyment.
'All Your Friends Hate Me' sees Sam playing with C&W and Americana more than he has before; it’s a great choice of style for this song, allowing a release of plaintive outpouring without corniness. Yes, it’s somewhat morose but that feels OK when performed with jangly guitar, a fiddle and close harmonies — and of course lyrical flourishes which cut through any sense of excessive self-pity: “Won’t you just let me get fat in my room? But no, you’ve really stuck the knife in deep…”
The move to the more clamorous ‘No One Has To Know’ is a great choice here, helping the album move forward in its overall arc — this is a brutally honest dissection of mental health struggles, the inexorable cycle of self-destruction, self-justification and social media, and the (laughable when you hear it) attempt to cure heavy problems by downloading a meditation app…
Wow, so much has happened already and we’re only five tracks in. There are seven more to come, each a valuable component of what is turning out to be a complex, masterful work.
There’s gentle but cutting analysis in ‘Everybody Loves A Crime Scene’; the living dream/nightmare story that’s told in hushed, almost reverent tones over soft guitar and minimal drips of piano in ‘The Wheel’; the joy-pain romance and catharsis of ‘I Loved A Boy’; and the wistful nostalgia, set off by wonderfully arranged female vocal harmonies, of ‘Back In Time’.
There’s ‘Echo’ which feels intimate, occasionally playful, but deeply moving — a lamentation for moments of missed chance and lost relationships; ‘Pale Blue Dot’, a stark ballad full of philosophical realisation and a deep sense of longing; and finally ‘Everything Is Not On Fire’, a tongue-in-cheek reflection of today’s inexorable angst, and the suspension of disbelief we all share.
Sam is one of those special songwriters who really takes time to think and is not afraid to share his true findings. “Everything will be alright” he repeats to close out the album, joined by other voices. There is a strange reassurance in that refrain, no matter how real the sentiment. When we share our worries, that’s one step closer to getting past them, and it’s the kindling of hope.
Sam's own words about the album are worth including. They give a hard-hitting insight into his inspirations and don't come as a surprise given the way Sam pours his heart and soul so thoroughly into his songwriting:
This is an album about Dread. About a very real, everyday dread so many of us feel surrounded by screens showing us how we should be, what a good person is, what a bad person is. It’s about trying to have and handle and process big messy emotions in a world that wants things to be small, simple, and quickly decided. Every person is flawed, every person has baggage, shrapnel they take with them that makes the airport security beep. This album is about acknowledging that shrapnel, poking it, flipping it and seeing what lives under it, and learning to fall in love with the version of yourself full of holes and missing pieces.
Full track list
Same Mistake Twice
Dirt
All Your Friends Hate Me
No One Has To Know
No Calories In Cocaine
Everybody Loves A Crime Scene
The Wheel
I Loved A Boy
Back In Time
Echo
Pale Blue Dot
Everything Is Not On Fire
The Howl & The Hum play at Twisterella festival (again) on 12th October, and then embark on a tour with six dates in England and Scotland, and seven in Europe. Full details on their website!
All photos: Stewart Baxter
