Rocketing out of Wales in the late Eighties, The Darling Buds combined rock attitude with throwback charm. Compared frequently to era contemporaries The Primitives, The Buds leaned heavily on Sixties inspirations too, yeah, but with a harder edge. And while the recent comprehensive collection of the output of The Darling Buds is absolutely essential, so too is the band's new music, as can be heard on Same Sun / Same Sky this week.
One listen to tracks like "Intruder" and lyrical single "Hey Saint Jude" ought to convince any doubters that the appeal of The Darling Buds is still obvious. This is bright, smart guitar-pop of the best kind built around the guitars of Matt Gray and Paul "Chaz" Watkins, Buds since 1992. The vocals of Andrea Lewis Jarvis anchor winners like "Oh No You Don't" to this band's past efforts, while the crunchy and melodic "Lost Time" is an absolute gem. Similarly, "Giddy in a Good Way" is elegant and lovely, revealing more depths here than just a guitar attack behind Andrea's sublime vocals.
What other legendary band in 2026 can still conjure up this kind of stuff so easily? I think that was the appeal of The Darling Buds because with Andrea Lewis Jarvis singing, the tunes always had a sweetness to them at odds with the rockier parts. It is that tension which makes the current material, like "Pretenders", roar with the same kind of pop promise we heard on Crawdaddy (1990) and Erotica (1992). And Same Sun / Same Sky is such a good listen that it might be easy for even long-time fans to take this band's consistency for granted. We should be enormously pleased that this lot are still at it, and that this record is here because this 2026 long-player is exactly what we want to hear from these Welsh legends. Turn this up loud!
Same Sun / Same Sky by The Darling Buds is out on Friday, July 31 via Cherry Red Records.
[Photo: The Darling Buds]