The public had to chose between a long list of all the tracks, featured on Radio X’ Record Of The Week, selecting their individual Top 10 for the year. The final positions saw the intimate balad ‘Impossible‘ claim the top spot as the best song of 2020, closely followed by ‘Real Love Song‘ at second place and Royal Blood’s upbeat single ‘Trouble’s Coming‘ at third. Celebrating yet another huge success from last year, Nothing But Thieves thanked everyone who voted with the message: “Absolutely mind blowing […] having 3 songs in the top 10 is a great way to end an awful year, you legends“.

:: AND NUMBER 1! Absolutely mind blowing. Thanks to @RadioX and everyone who voted, having 3 songs in the top 10 is a great way to end an awful year, you legends :: https://t.co/jEJeR0Fb9O

— Nothing But Thieves (@NBThieves) December 31, 2020

‘Impossible‘ first premiered back in September as the final promotional single before the official release of Moral Panic a month later, and shortly after had an atmospheric orchestral rendition recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Radio X shared the simple but accurate description of the track: “Ballads don’t get much more anthemic than Impossible, the track that silenced critics of the Southend band“. Speaking with the radio team, singer Conor Mason recalled the writing process: “In a way we’d written a lot of thematically-dense stuff and I remember thinking it’d be great to have a simpler song with a big chorus, a melody that was easy to sing back“. 

At the second spot of the year-end popular vote, ‘Real Love Song‘ was shared on 23 June alongside the official announcement of the upcoming third record, and also saw an orchestral make-over by the Bucharest Symphonic Orchestra during the Summer Well Festival. ‘Is Everybody Going Crazy?‘ was the first single by Nothing But Thieves in 2020, premiering back in March and reaching almost 20 million streams on Spotify since. The track ended at the sixth spot at the Radio X’s annual overview.

IT’S OFFICIAL! @NBThieves have WON the Radio X Record Of The Year with Impossible! CONGRATS LADS pic.twitter.com/8UPCfjUoIe

— Radio X (@RadioX) December 31, 2020

Just behind Nothing But Thieves’ first two spots and Royal Blood’s only single of the year, at #4 and #5 are Courteeners’ ‘Hanging Off Your Cloud‘ and Declan McKenna’s ‘The Key To Life On Earth‘. The seventh position is claimed by Biffy Clyro and the powerful track ‘Space‘ taken off their chart topping record A Celebration Of Endings. At the last three spots in Radio X’s Top 10 of 2020 are ‘Don’t Let The Devil Take Another Day‘ by Stereophonics, Sea Girls’ ‘All I Want To Hear You Say‘ and Gerry Cinnamon’s ‘Ghost‘.

Upon the release of the album, Nothing But Thieves posted an official message stating how happy they were to finally let the album out in the world, and highlighting the subtle political themes touched upon in the record. The band added: “Moral Panic hinges on what effect the pressures of the modern world and the information age have on us. It’s about people. It’s about you. This one has been cathartic to make. We hope it’s cathartic to listen to.”

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:: We couldn’t be happier to be able to finally say that our third album Moral Panic is now out in the world. It has been a tricky process at times and the album is, in a lot of ways, a political album – but it was our intention to not make it directly so. Moral Panic hinges on what effect the pressures of the modern world and the information age have on us. It’s about people. It’s about you. This one has been cathartic to make. We hope it’s cathartic to listen to ::

Публикация, споделена от Nothing But Thieves (@nothingbutthieves) на Окт 23, 2020 в 2:01 PDT

The Southend alternative rock five-piece have had a particularly busy year so far with their callendar filled with single releases, music videos, acoustic collaborations and tour announcement that paved the way to today’s release. The clever marketing campaign started back in March with the premiere of the first official single ‘Is Everybody Going Crazy?‘ that set a really high expectation just as the world was going in lockdown, and has already passed 14 million listens on Spotify alone. The second track ‘Real Love Song‘ came out at the end of June along with the official album release date, followed by the electric ‘Unperson‘ that saw the band really turning the heat up in August.

Since then, Nothing But Thieves manage to sneak in another two official premiers of the more mellow singles ‘Impossible‘ and ‘Phobia‘ and even record a unique orchestral version of the former track, recorded live at the prestigious Abbey Road Studios in London. All of this might seem like revealing too much of the album and leaving very little for its actual release day but listening to the full record in its entirety paints a completely different picture and delivers a dreamy yet sobering experience that should not be missed or taken lightly.

:: Thanks to @AppleMusic for the love on the album – read our editors notes interview on the album page ::https://t.co/P6MhfDo9TX — Nothing But Thieves (@NBThieves) October 23, 2020

The beauty of Moral Panic lies within balancing the opposites, going between the familiar Nothing But Thieves sound we have been in love with for the last five years shown in ‘This Feels Like The End‘ and their fresh experimental approach to some of the tracks like the summery ‘There Was Sun‘. The record floats between the fast energetic alternative rock of ‘Unperson‘ and the mellow soulful ballads ‘Before We Drift Away‘ and ‘Impossible‘, it switches between the album’s riotous political charge and its equally strong romantic melodies, and between light daydreaming motiffs and the lyrically heavy angry tirades such as ‘Can You Afford To Be An Individual?‘.

Nothing But Thieves have successfuly generated enough hype to make Moral Panic one of the highlights of the week, and rightfully so. The band celebrated the release with a global online listening party on their Twitter channel with hundreds of fans playing the album together and joining for a Q&A session with the band. With their previous album Broken Machine (2017) Nothing But Thieves reached #2 in the UK Albums Chart and it is looking like its successor might finally give them the well deserved and long overdue commercial peak.

The live orchestral re-work was accompanied by official music video that premiered on Friday. The project is exclusively supported by Amazon Music UK and released as a standalone single part of the Amazon Original series, available to purchase here.

‘Impossible‘ premiered two weeks ago on Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in The World on BBC Radio 1 and was described on the band’s official social media channels as the “antithesis of what’s on the album, of the anxiety and confusion that’s going on on this planet“. A gentle and intimate acoustic track, it immediately stood out from the rest of the more upbeat rock-infused 2020 singles with its slower pace and quiet interludes.

The brand new orchestral version adds depth and complexity to the single and takes it to a whole new level that perfectly complements the lyrics and melodies of the original. The track features orchestral pieces for string and brass, alongside Nothing But Theives’ live performance. Credits for the arrangement go to orchestrator and string arranger Rosie Danvers of Wired Strings, while production, mixing and sound engineering is masterfuly handled by Jonathan Gilmore and Mike Crossey.

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:: Available now on @amazonmusic “Impossible Orchestral Version Live from Abbey Road”. It was a real pleasure to make. Special thanks to @amazonmusicuk , the string and brass players and @rosiedstrings @jon_gilmore and @mikecrossey for making it happen. Watch the full video from 7pm (UK) tonight on our YouTube. ::

Публикация, споделена от Nothing But Thieves (@nothingbutthieves) на Окт 2, 2020 в 4:28 PDT

Recently Nothing But Thieves also collaborated with the Bucharest Symphonic Orchestra for a grand live rendition of ‘Real Love Song‘, performed for the first time at the Summer Well Festival in Romania. The bautiful orchestral piece was then recorded and remastered for another official standalone single which now stands proudly alongside the new ‘Impossible‘ re-work as a whole new series of projects that add a beautiful new side to the band’s music and scope, and and interesting partnership expected to blossom even more with future releases. 

Abbey Road Studios was first established in 1931 by the Gramophone Company as a recording studio that famously hosted The Beatles among many others iconic artists from. It was renamed in 1970 in honour of the iconic album Abbey Road from 1970 whose emblematic artwork photograph was taken just outside the building. Nothing But Thieves shared thay had plans to do the orchestral version of ‘Impossible‘ from the moment they wrote the song, but doing it at Abbey Road of all places was “a dream realised“.

:: From the moment we wrote Impossible, we knew we wanted to do this. But to be able to do it at the legendary Abbey Road was a dream realised.

Watch the full orchestral version of “Impossible” live from @AbbeyRoad, thanks again to @AmazonMusicUK https://t.co/lYqW4nCLRo :: pic.twitter.com/t5t51eZv65

— Nothing But Thieves (@NBThieves) October 2, 2020

Nothing But Thieves’ upcoming third studio album is expected on 23 October 2020 via Sony Music with the official tracklist already revealed earlier in September.

The band wrote a message to fans on Instagram, saying, “We couldn’t be happier to announce we’ll be hitting the road across the UK and Europe in 2021 for The Moral Panic Tour – including The 02 London. Still not sure how they let us get in on that one.” General sale tickets will be available this Friday, 18th September at 9am, or to gain access to pre-sale tickets, fans can pre-order the new album from the official store before 3pm tomorrow (Tuesday 15th).

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:: We couldn’t be happier to announce we’ll be hitting the road across the UK and Europe in 2021 for The Moral Panic Tour – including The 02 London. Still not sure how they let us get in on that one. General sale starts Friday 18th 9AM with the pre-sale this Weds 16th 9AM – head over to store.nbthieves.com to get access to the pre-sale before 3PM tomorrow Tues 15th, as well as all new album products. Not confusing at all. And one last thing – tune in to @anniemacmanus @bbcradio1 at 6PM BST tonight for even more. Thurs 30/09 – Dublin, Olympia Sat 02/10 – Belfast, Ulster Hall Wed 06/10 – Plymouth, Pavilions Thurs 07/10 – Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena Fri 08/10 – London, The 02 Sun 10/10 – Birmingham, O2 Academy Mon 11/10 – Glasgow, Barrowland Thurs 14/10 – Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse Sat 16/10 – Nottingham, Motorpoint Arena Mon 18/10 – Barcelona, Razzamataz 2 Wed 20/10 – Paris, Casino de Paris Sun 24/10 – Wiesbaden, Schlachthof Tues 26/10 – Leipzig, Täubchenthal Thurs 28/10 – Berlin, Columbiahalle Tue 02/11 – Munich, TonHalle Wed 03/11 – Milan, Fabrique Fri 05/11 – Zürich, Halle 622 Sat 06/11 – Luxembourg, den Atelier Mon 08/11 – Copenhagen, Amager Bio Tues 09/11 – Stockholm, Fryshuset Thurs 11/11 – Köln, Palladium Fri 12/11 – Amsterdam, Ziggo Dome More dates to be announced ::

A post shared by Nothing But Thieves (@nothingbutthieves) on Sep 14, 2020 at 1:00am PDT

‘Moral Panic’ is the band’s third studio album, due for release on 23rd October 2020. So far, three singles have already been shared: ‘Is Everybody Going Crazy?’, ‘Real Love Song’, and ‘Unperson’, with a new one premiered tonight on BBC 1 Radio show ‘Future Sounds With Annie Mac’.

The five members of Nothing But Thieves are Conor Mason (lead vocals, guitar), Joe Langridge-Brown (guitar), Dominic Craik (guitar, keyboard), Philip Blake (bass), and James Price (drums). Their careers picked up with the release of their song ‘Itch’, leading them to tour with Twin Atlantic and sign with Sony Music and RCA Records.

The full list of tour dates is below, with more to be announced.

30/09/2021 – Olympia – Dublin, Ireland
02/10 – Ulster Hall – Belfast, UK
06/10 – Pavilions – Plymouth, UK
07/10 – Motorpoint Arena – Cardiff, UK
08/10 – O2 Arena – London, UK
10/10 – O2 Academy – Cardiff, UK
11/10 – Barrowland – Glasgow, UK
14/10 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester, UK
16/10 – Motorpoint Arena – Nottingham, UK
18/10 – Razzamataz 2 – Barcelona, Spain
20/10 – Casino de Paris – Paris, France
24/10 – Schlachthof – Wiesbaden, Germany
26/10 – Täubchenthal – Leipzig, Germany
28/10 – Columbiahalle – Berlin, Germany
02/11 – TonHalle – Munich, Germany
03/11 – Fabrique – Milan, Italy
05/11 – Halle 622 – Zürich, Switzerland
06/11 – den Atelier – Luxembourg
08/11 – Amager Bio – Copenhagen, Denmark
09/11 – Fryshuset – Stockholm, Sweden
11/11 – Palladium – Cologne, Germany
12/11 – Ziggo Dome – Amsterdam, Netherlands

Social media posts from Friday displayed the full hand-written tracklist and confirmed the titles of the eleven tracks to feature on Moral Panic. The album will open with their latest explosive release ‘Unperson‘ followed by the first official single ‘Is Everybody Going Crazy?‘. Nothing But Thieves have repeatedly described their upcoming album on previous posts as being “about the tension in the air” and the tracklist immediately draws attention to the themes of fear, dillusion, loss of freedom and mass panic with song names like ‘Phobia‘, ‘This Feels Like The End‘, ‘Impossible‘ and title track ‘Moral Panic‘.

:: Moral Panic

1. Unperson
2. Is Everybody Going Crazy?
3. Moral Panic
4. Real Love Song
5. Phobia
6. This Feels Like The End
7. Free If We Want It
8. Impossible
9. There Was Sun
10. Can You Afford To Be An Individual?
11. Before We Drift Awayhttps://t.co/VOm0lxphf9 :: pic.twitter.com/1rsnW8mAng

— Nothing But Thieves (@NBThieves) September 11, 2020

So far the Southend alternative rock quintet have released three official singles from the highly anticipated new record, all accompanied by music videos. Earlier in March this year their dropped the first song ‘Is Everybody Going Crazy?‘ which has already reached more than twelve million streams on Spotify. It was followed by the more mellow and melancholic ‘Real Love Song‘ from June, and most recently the energetic and dystopian ‘Unperson‘ which raised the expectations even higher.  

During the Summer Well Festival in Romania in August, the Bucharest Symphonic Orchestra performed a beautiful live orchestral rendition of ‘Real Love Song‘ as part of the ‘Our Night Picnic’ symphonic project. Nothing But Thieves have since released the unique collaboration as a separate alternative single and will likely feature it on the official digital version of Moral Panic.

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:: Thanks to the @summer_well_festival and the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra for creating this beautiful visual to go alongside their reimagining of Real Love Song. Check it out in full on their channel ::

Публикация, споделена от Nothing But Thieves (@nothingbutthieves) на Сеп 8, 2020 в 11:02 PDT

Alongside the three official singles and music videos, the band also dropped a cryptic 30-seconds teaser, potentially of title track ‘Moral Panic‘ but not yet confirmed. The snippet features frontman Conor Mason singing the haunting “What we’ve become” over an emergency broadcast narrating a chaotic news coverage: “There’s a tension in the air / Everyone can feel it / 7 reported dead in the street / It permeates everything / It’s in our homes / Our chlorinated chicken /  7 million reported dead / Please stare at whatever clickbait debate next goes viral / Plastic opinions and drive thru funerals / Everything has a price / And then you“. With recent tracklist reveal and all releases, it seems Nothing But Thieves have a very strong message for everyone, coming on 23 October. 

The confirmed tracklist of Moral Panic is as follows:
1. Unperson
2. Is Everybody Going Crazy?
3. Moral Panic
4. Real Love Song
5. Phobia
6. This Feels Like The End
7. Free If We Want It
8. Impossible
9. There Was Sun
10. Can You Afford To Be An Individual?
11. Before We Drift Away

:: Album 3 ‘Moral Panic’ will be with you on Oct 23 and is available to preorder now. Our new single from it ‘Real Love Song’ is out now, click the link to give it a listen. Love from the boys https://t.co/lwQ9HdQkEA :: pic.twitter.com/lkfSXEm6aE

— Nothing But Thieves (@NBThieves) June 23, 2020

Premiering on Annie Mac’s BBC Radio 1 show, this is the second single to be heard from the upcoming album ‘Moral Panic’, after March’s ‘Is Everybody Going Crazy’, which has now reached 7 million streams. According to NME, the band described ‘Real Love Song’ as being “a song about love from a self-aware perspective,” saying, “It’s about the darker side of love – the painful, unrequited kind.” 

Clearly fans are resonating with the theme, perhaps because of the relatability, as the band said: “Songs tend to be idealistic or Hollywood.” Or, maybe it’s the strong drums and powerful yet vulnerable vocals which evoke emotions from the listener, whether or not they’ve experienced the feeling. Along with the song came a colourful lyric video, currently trending on YouTube with 55,000 views.

Nothing But Thieves shared their EP ‘What Did You Think When You Made Me This Way?’ back in 2018, and a year prior, their sophomore album, ‘Broken Machine’. Now, they have shared details of their next release, ‘Moral Panic’, available for pre-order now. The band shared the first promo video today; a cryptic montage of clips, with a voice over and the caption, “This album is about the tension in the air. It’s about people. It’s about you.”

:: This album is about the tension in the air. It’s about people. It’s about you. Moral Panic Is setting in Terror fever It’s too late to begin. https://t.co/vLkYgXod95 :: pic.twitter.com/MePNOIoIJR — Nothing But Thieves (@NBThieves) June 24, 2020

While in lock-down, the band has not stopped creating music; they recorded the ultimate isolation cover for their series ‘The Solitude Sessions’ – a cover of their song ‘Sorry’ with 250 fans who submitted videos of themselves playing it. Furthermore, the Nothing But Thieves members shared a video of the recording process for ‘Real Love Song’ as promotion.

The five members of Nothing But Thieves are Conor Mason (lead vocals, guitar), Joe Langridge-Brown (guitar), Dominic Craik (guitar, keyboard), Philip Blake (bass), and James Price (drums). Their careers picked up with the release of their song ‘Itch’, leading them to tour with Twin Atlantic and sign with Sony Music and RCA Records.