It’s one thing to blow up your life, it’s another to then step back and watch the chaos unfold. Murray Matravers (aka hard life), has spent the past three years learning what it means to find conviction in unsteady circumstances. As a result, courage serves as the animating force of onion, the Leceister-raised musician’s meticulously-crafted third LP; in the difficult, exhilarating course of these 14 songs, Matravers’ true reward comes with an embrace of the unknown.
Standing as both a dazzling example of musical possibility and as a totem of personal growth, the album straddles a line between worlds of pop accessibility and genre-disruptive playfulness. Much has been said about breakups and sundered friendships in the digital age, but Matravers’ writing across onion dazzles in its piercing self-awareness – tracks defined by “a simple melancholy, yearning and a realness,” he says. “I knew I had to come back swinging, and that meant making my most honest music yet.”
As anyone who has fallen for the charms of hard life’s music over the eight years can attest, their catalogue displays Matravers’ talents as one of the most astute young songwriters in the UK. That journey has featured a pair of No. 2-charting albums and culture-clashing collaborations with the likes of Arlo Parks, Kevin Abstract, and FINNEAS. hard life enjoyed star-making turns on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury and festivals across the globe, as well as multiple sold-out headline tours that have hit the highs of London’s iconic Alexandra Palace and even arenas in their native East Midlands.
