Divorce share “snapshot of our past” on “beautiful” new single ‘O Calamity’
Divorce have shared a new single called ‘O Calamity’ – you can listen to it below.
The tender, stripped-back song marks the first release from the alt-country band and former NME Cover stars since their debut album, ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’, which arrived in March.
Speaking about the track, co-vocalist and guitarist Tiger Cohen-Towell explained: “‘O Calamity’ was written six years ago, I recall the vocals for the first verse and chorus came into my head during a shift at the bar I was working at, a pretty standard way that songwriting starts for me even still.”
The musician continued: “Felix [Mackenzie-Barrow, co-vocalist] and I were performing under a different alias then, so we finished and arranged it together. We always thought it was a beautiful song and kept it in our pile of material, but didn’t include it on the album simply because of how long ago it had been written.
“This feels like a good time to stop hanging onto it, so here it is: a snapshot of our past written by the two of us, scarcely more than teenagers at the point of creation. It feels like an absolute world away, but good songs never get old.”
“Oh, calamity rolls on/ And I never wanted to hurt anyone/ Oh, she is a song sung,” sing Cohen-Towell and Mackenzie-Barrow in the chorus, over gentle acoustic guitar and ukulele.
‘O Calamity’ is accompanied by an intimate, home VHS-style music video, filmed by Divorce and Skylar Watkins. Tune in above.
Divorce, who appeared on this year’s NME 100, are set to play various summer festivals, and will open for The Maccabees at All Points East in London next month. They’ll also support Bombay Bicycle Club at their upcoming shows in York and Liverpool.
In September, the band will embark on a North American headline tour before returning to the UK in November for a string of dates. Find any remaining tickets here (UK) and see the full schedule below.
Divorce’s headline dates for 2025 are:
SEPTEMBER
17 – The Rockwell, Somerville, MA, USA
18 – Elsewhere Zone 1, Kings County, NY, USA
19 – Pie Shop, Washington, DC, USA
20 – MilkBoy, Philadelphia, PA, USA
22 – The Sound Garage, Toronto, ON, CA
25 – Schubas, Chicago, IL, USA
27 – Baba Yaga, Seattle, WA, USA
29 – Brick & Mortar Music Hall, San Francisco, CA, USA
OCTOBER
02 – Gold-Diggers, Los Angeles, CA, USA
NOVEMBER
28 – La Belle Angele, Edinburgh, UK
29 – The Grove, Newcastle, UK
DECEMBER
03 – The Globe, Cardiff, UK
04 – Papillon, Southampton, UK
05 – Arts Centre, Norwich, UK
06 – The Lido, Margate, UK
09 – Crookes Social Club, Sheffield, UK
10 – Academy 2, Manchester, UK
11 – Trinity Centre, Bristol, UK
13 – Rock City, Nottingham, UK
Speaking to NME for The Cover in March, Divorce opened up about their journey from teenage songwriters to creators of one of the most exciting debut albums of the year with ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’.
Growing up in Nottingham, the four-piece came up in a local scene that boasts a tight-knit and “self-sustaining” community of artists, but also often doesn’t get the attention it deserves from the music industry.
“When you don’t get a lot of outside interest, you don’t have much choice but to make it yourself,” Mackenzie-Barrow told NME.
“Sitting in the van on your way to a show and looking around at these friends that you have, sitting in the garden in the house where we wrote the songs, having dinner together. Those are the moments that feel like success.”
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Tom Skinner
NME
