Review of My New Band Believe by My New Band Believe
Black midi is a band of prodigies, and Cameron Picton’s self-titled debut as My New Band Believe is the latest proof. Picton, the band’s bassist, has stepped out not to do something smaller, but to do something entirely his own. The record feels like an alternative reality in which Isaac Wood was replaced by Geordie Greep in Black Country New Road. Which gets me thinking: what would black midi sound like with Wood as frontman?
Now that the obvious punchlines are out of the way, let’s dive into My New Band Believe. One of the first things you notice is the complete absence of electric guitar. This isn’t a rejection of electric instruments. Picton is pushing himself, trying to recreate that chorus-soaked sustain using purely acoustic means. The result draws heavily on the Spanish and Flamenco guitar he grew up around, with classical instrumentation woven throughout. It’s the strings, though, that carry the album, easily its strongest element.
“I didn’t even consider recording it for the album and then yeah, it’s too crazy and or like it’s too crazy in a specific way and it’s basically dance music and I think it would just be too much of an outlier whereas all the other songs on the album are related to each other in some way.” – Cameron Picton on Fantano
That’s what I love about Picton: his honesty and willingness to scrap songs that don’t fit the album’s core. He treats the record as a complete work, not a playlist. One casualty was “Numerology.” Picton has said it might have been the best song on the record, but it was too dancey, too frantic, and ultimately the wrong mood for the album.
The opening track “Target Practice” can only be described as taking an ice bath. The first minute of listening I found myself entirely focused on Picton’s vocals, something I personally needed to adjust to. But once his voice begins to melt into the instrumentation and that adjustment settles, it becomes a totally different experience, slowly building through a classical approach that makes me want to bow before a king in a fairytale court, before ending abruptly with backing vocals that enter gracefully, only to be cut off straight into my personal favourite track on the album, “In The Blink of An Eye.”
“I am not trying to tap into a character, but just trying to tap into an emotion or feeling” – Cameron Picton
“In The Blink of An Eye” is what I would call symphonic restlessness. It’s filled with fingerpicking guitar, a drummer who probably deserves a cigarette break after this, and Picton’s almost crooning, painfully loose lyrics that feel like they could unravel at any moment. The multi-layered vocals in particular are something special, stacking into something that feels both intimate and overwhelming at once. Loosely drawn as a conversation between a couple going through a fast and tumultuous breakup, the song can be genuinely hard to decipher, but Picton captures the feeling of a blink of an eye perfectly. It all builds to a transition that I can only describe as a classical Spanish take on black midi’s Hellfire.
“Heart of Darkness” keeps up the momentum of the previous tracks. The opening leans most closely into Picton’s Spanish classical roots, with exotic guitar patterns leading the way. The middle of the track slows into something more ambient, soft choir backing vocals and a perfectly mixed contrabass emerging from beneath. Then the darkness the title promises finally arrives: eerie creaking sounds layered over the contrabass and slow fingerpicking.
From this point onward, the album begins a controlled decrescendo. The restless energy of its opening movements is gradually stripped away, creating space for “Love Story,” the album’s emotional and structural centerpiece. Notably, Picton has described it as the track most removed from his work with Black Midi, and its placement is crucial. Here, strings and piano take precedence in an arrangement that is both restrained and deeply expressive. The result is one of the album’s most affecting moments, a composition that does not merely gesture toward sentiment, but fully inhabits it.
“We’ll bring you pearls
If you forget about the swine
We’ll give you time
If you can turn a blind eye
Enjoy your wine”
Where “Love Story” fully inhabits the sentiment and affection, “Pearls” pulls back the sinister mood from “Heart Of Darkness”, with the strings creating the sound of anxiety and uncertainty itself. The crooked and wrong-sounding instruments, the dark and pounding drums, the messed-up high-pitched backing vocals, the eerie dry classical guitar picking, all add to that feeling.
It could have been cut a little shorter, as the ambience and sounds at the end go on for a full minute. I really love the song, but I understand why it sits near the bottom of many people’s lists for the album.
As for my personal least favourite, that title belongs to “Opposite Teacher”. Cameron Picton’s vocals don’t quite do it for me here, and the repetition of words within sentences, like “Life, life, you barely know what life is”, does start to get a little on my nerves nerves. That is not to say the song is bad; it is simply the weakest point on a strong record. And even then, the composition is beautiful, and the instrumentals shine on every single track.
“Actress” picks the album right back up, in a beautiful, orchestral and avant-garde way. It feels like the embodiment of everything Cameron Picton’s experimentation with acoustic and organic instrumentation on this solo debut has been leading up to. It covers everything: the sentimental vocals, string sections that come in and leave like waves, and a surrealistic, Musical-like quality brought on by the backing vocals. It is so subtly bombastic. Though the runtime of 8:20 might sound daunting, time really flies when you are having fun, because it felt like a two-minute track.
Honestly, the album would have ended better on “Actress”. “One Night” is a decent track, but it doesn’t feel like the right closing song for an album this strong. It would have functioned better placed a few songs earlier. It lacks the bombastic, grandiose feeling that “Actress” carries so naturally. Ending on “One Night” is a bit like watching a band live and having them close the show with one of their slow dance songs. Not a bad song, just the wrong moment for it.
My New Band Believe is the kind of debut that reminds you why solo records from band members are worth paying attention to. Picton has not made a black midi record without electricity. He has made something that could only come from him, on his own terms, in his own time. It is not a flawless album, but its flaws are minor and its highs are genuinely memorable. The strings alone are worth the price of admission. Whatever comes next from Picton, whether under this name or back behind the bass in black midi, this one does not let go easily, and proves that the Windmill Scene still has places left to go.
Album Artwork
Cover art by Kuo Jun You, Espace Devenir, Molly Boniface, Joseph Bradley Hill
The album cover centers on a painting by Kuo Jun You, and it's a shame how difficult it is to actually see it online, given the graphic design choices layered on top of it.
Looking at closer crops, the painting reveals itself as a wonderfully stylized scene: a man dressed in an old-school cowboy-era outfit, detonating dynamite with a remote trigger, sending a flock of parrots or vividly coloured birds scattering across a mountain landscape. The surrealist touches are what make it: rivers and trees rendered impossibly tiny at the base, a bloody explosion site, and an ambiguous energy to the birds. Are they fleeing, or flocking back in revenge? The painting is genuinely captivating.
Which makes the design decisions all the more frustrating. I understand the intent; the undefined, unsettling atmosphere mirrors the way Cameron writes his lyrics. But the heavy spotlight / gradient and surrounding darkness don't serve that purpose. They just obscure the artwork. The typeface is a solid choice, and the red lettering cuts through the dark background well, but the overall execution makes the cover feel cheaper than it should, and leaves the painting nearly invisible.
I hope they release a deluxe edition that lets the painting breathe. It deserves to be the cover, not a background element.
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