New Release – Poetaster: A Miscellany (album) by The False Poets

Hailing from Durham (UK) the False Poets originally formed in the summer of 2012 by four fans of garage rock. They soon started writing their own material and put out a single and EP before disbanding in 2014. The band got back together in 2018 with the intention of focusing on their own songs. They have since put out their eponymous self titled debut album in 2019, followed up by their sophomore release ‘Strange Season’ in 2021.

They are releasing their third album ‘Poetaster: A Miscellany’ on 2nd September. A pre-save is available.

‘Poetaster: A Miscellany’ is a compilation album, comprising of the single and EP from the first line up of the band with additional miscellaneous tracks recorded since the band got back together in 2018.

What does the album’s title reveal?

“The album’s title is a bit tongue-in-cheek with a bit of a play on words involved. It’s a compilation album, kind of made up of odds and ends, hence the Miscellany part. Poetaster suggests it’s a taster of our, The Poets’, back catalogue whilst the word poetaster actually means a second rate rhymster with artistic pretensions, so it kind of self-deprecatorily works on a couple of levels. It’s a little bit like our version of Pink Floyd’s ‘Relics’ which has shorter songs on it with a couple of longer pieces in there and we feel it works as a whole.”

Does the whole album fit into a particular musical genre, or does it borrow from multiple forms?

“We’ve got our roots in garage rock which is pretty much fuzzy riffs, verse and chorus and it’s all guitar, bass, drums. Having said that the songs span a ten year period, so there is a fair bit of diversity in there. Debut single ‘Tell Me When’ sounds like something The Beatles may have penned in 1964 to lead single and latest track ‘Shadows of Fear’ has a gothy, post-punk sound. There’s a gloomy krautrock instrumental that clocks in at about ten minutes and plenty of short catchy numbers in there, too.”

What are you hoping to achieve with this release?

“After releasing two strong albums in a fairly short space of time, we’re hoping that ‘Poetaster: A Miscellany’ will pick us up a few new fans as there are some pretty wildly rocking, catchy songs on there that they may not have heard before. We hope we have created an album that works as a whole as we group together a strong collection of songs that will be available on streaming platforms for the first time. That’s where most people listen to music these days and it’s hoped the release will fill in a few blanks for those fans we picked up in the last couple of years.”