As we countdown the launch of The Enemy Social Disguises album, it's time to take a look back over the last 19 years and find out what fans have been listening from from the first four albums.
The fifth most played songs from the first four albums are:
These tracks demonstrate the mix of music that fans of The Enemy have come to appreciate over the year's and the new album is expected to deliver some new fan favourites later this month.
Check out which four tracks make the number four slot in the next Album Launch Countdown.
The Enemy performed tracks from the new album It's Automatic to delighted hometown fans in Coventry at the HMV store. After playing three tracks, the lads performed the classic anthem We'll Live And Die In These Towns before signing copies of the CD and album.
The Enemy returned once again to their home city, performing new tracks at HMV from the fourth studio album, It's Automatic. This video is the title track from the album and this is the first public performance. Afterwards, fans were able to get copies of the album and CD signed by Tom, Andy and Liam.
The Enemy returned to their hometown of Coventry for the launch of It's Automatic, their fourth studio album. Tom, Andy and Liam delighted fans as they performed new tracks from the album and threw in a classic from 2007. HMV hosted the band and fans were able to get the new album signed.
The Enemy performed tracks from the new album It's Automatic in their hometown of Coventry. It was the first public performance of the fourth studio album, with a classic track thrown in for good measure.
The Enemy's Tom Clarke has given an interview with Fused magazine about the bands new album and direction. Both heartfelt and honest, it gives fans (and non-fans) a real insight into how the band arrived at the sound for the fourth album and why they are daring to be bold with the new direction.
[pic: BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Shane O'Connor with Liam Watts and Andy Hopkins from Twitter]
The Enemy's Liam Watts and Andy Hopkins popped into BBC Coventry and WarwickshireShane O'Connor's Breakfast Show for an interview about the new album and upcoming tour. The interview was broadcast on Friday 11th September 2015 and will be available until October 10th.
Here is the first video from the fourth studio album by The Enemy due for release on 9th October 2015. The title track, 'It's Automatic' received it's first radio play on XFM's Jon Holmes Breakfast Show today (25/08/15) and went down a storm with fans. The video premiered on NME
Conor Doherty described it saying, "it's different, but sounds brilliant." Twitter user matteos herringos said, "I got goose bumps listening to that! It's bloody massive ..... what a tune!" Die hard fan, Amy Langham thought the new track was, "big" - saying Jon Holmes should play it again.
Tickets for the November tour and pre-orders for the new album are available now: pledge.com
When most musicians claim they had to get clean to find inspiration for their new album, they don’t mean it in quite the same way as The Enemy’s Tom Clarke. “Every now and then I just get in the shower and write lyrics,” he says, discussing the creative process behind their forthcoming fourth album ‘It’s Automatic’ and its giveaway “transition track” ‘Don’t Let Nothing Get In The Way’. “For some reason that’s the place that I write songs more frequently than anywhere else. I got in the shower and those lyrics were just there… I always just want to get home and get in my shower because I know I can write songs there. I’ve been looking at redoing my bathroom but what if I get rid of the shower and it doesn’t work anymore?”
Magical musical faucets aside, ‘It’s Automatic’ is an album driven by romantic woes (“a lot of this album is about relationships, I’ve had a lot of them now and none of them have worked. It’s definitely the most personal record”) and the need for a fresh start. “We’re at the point where we want to try and take a bit of a risk and put an album out that’s different and progressive and a bit of an evolution,” Clarke explains, still burnt, perhaps, by the scathing critical response to 2012’s Top 10 third album ‘Streets In The Sky’.
“It started before we released the singles and rarities album [2014’s ‘Dancing All Night’, released via PledgeMusic]. We were playing a gig in the middle of nowhere in Scotland and I sat Andy [Hopkins, bass] and Liam [Watts, drums] down and kinda said, ‘Look, I can’t do another ‘We’ll Live and Die In These Towns’. I don’t wanna cover old ground, I don’t wanna make another Enemy album, I wanna go and do some solo stuff’. Andy was like, “Well I don’t wanna make another Enemy album either, we really have covered it and I wanna do something completely different”. That’s where the talks started of, ‘Maybe we do it as The Enemy but we do something that people wouldn’t expect.’”
They set about cribbing sounds and ideas from their favourite contemporary records – Diiv, Death Cab For Cutie, the Drive soundtrack, R&B beats and even, thanks to their new producer Gethin Pearson, their mortal enemies from the school of 2008. “Gethin’s the person who basically made me listen to the Horrors album. He said ‘I don’t care what you think about them, you’ve got to listen to this album cos it’s too good not to’. So I drove back from work listening to the album going, ‘He’s right, it’s fucking amazing’. That latest album (2014’s ‘Luminous’), it’s like Simple Minds but there are bits of The Cure. I love it. I just listen to it from a musical perspective, forgetting anything previously [Horrors singer Faris Badwan mocked The Enemy at the 2008 NME Awards, declaring that they’d “defied natural selection”].”
Delving into psychedelic and progressive sounds, ‘It’s Automatic’ and first single ‘So Much Love’ are about “when you almost don’t want to be in love with someone but you are and you probably always will be no matter who else you meet – it’s venting that feeling”.
Tom is confident it’s a new-era Enemy record that will catapult them straight back into the public eye. Although he insists he won’t be returning to Twitter, which he quit over “cyber bullying” last year. “Twitter is a bit like an infection that you don’t really know you’ve got but it drags you down and you’re never really firing on all cylinders,” he says. “Since leaving Twitter my productivity has gone up, my mood is generally better, I can’t see me going back… There’s so much pressure to be on social media, you’re like an outcast if you’re not. But I’d rather be a happy outcast.”
The Enemy 2015 tour dates are out and fans have been able to pre-book from 9am today Wednesday 8th July 2015) ahead of general release on Friday 10th July. The full 12 date tour covers England and Scotland at the moment. Any additions will be updated via the bands social media sites.
A new official website for The Enemy has also be launched at theenemyband.com and it looks like the fourth album is already stirring up a lot of interest among fans and the media.
Beautiful morning with a blood red sky
Man with a briefcase asks you why
He doesn't know that today's the day
that the brothers and sisters come together again
They got no morals, they got no code
They got no names for the places they go
They wanna rob you, wanna steal your soul, but ya
You gotta fight for the ones you love, singing
Don't let nothing get in the way, hey
Don't let nothing get in the way
Don't let nothing get in the way, hey
Don't let nothing get in the way
Beautiful girl with the blood red eyes
Mother and father asked her why
They didn't know that today's the day
that the brothers and sisters join together again
They got no morals, they got no code
They got no names for the places they go
They wanna rob you, wanna steal your soul, but ya
You got to fight for the ones you love, singing
Don't let nothing get in the way, hey
Don't let nothing get in the way
Don't let nothing get in the way, hey
Don't let nothing get in the way
Don't let nothing get in the way
Don't let nothing get in the way
Don't let nothing get in the way
Don't let nothing get in the way
Ohhhh ohhhh
You gotta fight for the ones you love
Ohhhh ohhhh
You gotta fight for the ones you love
Don't let nothing get in the way, hey
Don't let nothing get in the way
Don't let nothing get in the way, hey
Don't let nothing get in the way
Coventry band, The Enemy have announced tour dates and a 4th album are on the way later this year. The band are also returning to Warner Bros music via VAM records and look set to win over a new audience with their definitive rock sound. Music manager John Dawkins has described the latest album saying, "new album is frightening. Cant wait to unleash. Even the give away track on pre order launch are strong" on Twitter.
With three top 10 albums already under their belts, The Enemy look set for a fourth if the free track 'Don't Let Nothing Get In The Way' is anything to go by. Fans have been pre-ordering the new album, 'It's Automatic' from various websites and Pledge Music have signed copies, t-shirts and UK tour VIP upgrades - allowing fans to get access to the soundcheck before a show on the UK tour and a photo with the band.
The twelve date tour kicks off at Fibbers, York on the 16th of November and concludes on the 1st December at Rock City in Nottingham. Popular locations such as London, Manchester and Glasgow form part of the tour and home fans will be pleased to know The Enemy will be performing in Coventry on Saturday 21st November 2015. Tickets go on general sale at 9am Friday 10th July 2015, but fans who sign up at http://bit.ly/EnemySignUp can get pre-sale access on Wednesday 8th July 2015 from 9am.
FULL TOUR DATES:
November: 16th - Fibbers, York 17th - The Ritz, Manchester 18th – HMV, Birmingham 20th – Forum, London 21st – Empire, Coventry 22nd – Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth 24th – Riverside, Newcastle 25th – Stylus, Leeds 26th - Garage, Glasgow 28th – Leadmill, Sheffield 29th – Waterfront, Norwich December: 1st – Rock City, Nottingham
