Olympians dare to let hope in on ‘Rosa Lee’

Every weekday, DIY’s new music know-it-all Neu brings you one essential new release to get obsessed with. Today’s Neu Pick comes from Olympians.

Few revel in gloom quite like Olympians. A cursory glance at their various online corners will prove as much - from ‘inspirational’ images designed to remind you that, essentially, you and everyone you love are completely fucked, through to the ongoing saga of their brilliantly-titled debut album ‘Reasons To Be Tearful’, a record they themselves recently declared both “another fart on the pile” and “sort of a byproduct of us having a band practice every Tuesday”. Engaging stuff. On latest track ‘Rosa Lee’, though, they remove a brick from their towering defences.

Backing frontman Dan Harvey’s intimate, intensely personal details of a crumbling modern-day relationship - “you clean my filthy sheets, and put up with my life,” he sighs - with a regal, swelling pop backing, ‘Rosa Lee’ achieves the almost-impossible, lifting the miserable Norwich-based gits out of the gutter for the briefest of moments. “I’ve been hoping you’d hold me close, and take me back inside,” Dan later admits, before the crusher comes; the titular Rosa Lee’s “fucking dick” of a boyfriend stepping in to block up that light at the end of the tunnel. Back to “service station beers”, then.

If it’s a classic case of the oh-so-British sads you’re after, you couldn’t do much better than this lot. Close the curtains, block out that pesky sunlight, and get the first listen of ‘Rosa Lee’ below. Olympians’ debut album ‘Reasons To Be Tearful’ is set for release on June 24th via Barely Regal Records on vinyl and digital (pre-order either here) - they play the following shows to commiserate:

JUNE
23 Brighton, Green Door Store (w/ Dags)
24 London, Birthdays (w/ Dags, Oh Man, The Mountain)