"Amid the chaos and violence, Beth strains with every fibre of her being to resist, and to refuse, and to fight for what she holds dear and true." A defiant Jehnny Beth confronts an ever-darkening world with the fierce, furious You Heartbreaker, You

You Heartbreaker, You opens with a scream, a conscious, unignorable statement of intent from Jehnny Beth as she reintroduces herself to the world. Two years ago, in between US dates supporting Queens Of The Stone Age in amphitheatres and arenas, the former Savages vocalist was booked to play alongside the likes of Tool and Korn at heavy music festivals such as Louder Than Life and Aftershock, and was surprised, delighted and inspired to find her music embraced by fans of hardcore bands such as Turnstile, Gel and Scowl. The follow-up to 2020's To Love Is To Live, the French singer/actress promised herself, would be a heavier, dark affair: "I wanted to make a punk record," she recalls.

"We’re living in a dark time, full of drama and barbarous tragedy. It became clear to me that, in these times, we either learn how to scream really well, or we learn how to whisper."

Those who've followed Beth's career over the past decade plus, will know that whispering was never, ever a consideration.

You Heartbreaker, You is a wonderfully abrasive, confrontational and cathartic record. And even if you fell in love with Savages around the point where the London-based quartet released the ferocious Fuckers, you might be surprised at just how explosive it is. Opener Broken Rib sounds like Fugazi, Tool and Deftones trying to blow up the world in three minutes, while, song two, the ragingTrue Detective-inspired No Good For People could be Nine Inch Nails circa The Downward Spiral. And so the tone is set for one of the fiercest records you'll hear in 2025.

High Resolution Sadness is full-tilt hardcore punk, Out Of Reach is a tense, aching love song, underpinned by frustration and a sense of desperation ("How can it be so complex, I just wanna see you undress'), and even the record's most stripped-back song, closer I See Your Pain, is laced with barely-suppressed fury, exemplified by lyrics such as, “I can’t feel your pain and you will never feel mine.”

Throughout You Heartbreaker, You, it's hard to escape the sense that the world is falling apart, that everything decent and pure and worthwhile is being choked, battered and trampled underfoot. But equally, amid the chaos and violence, you can hear Beth straining with every fibre of her being to resist, and to refuse, and to fight for what she holds dear and true. It makes for a magnificent, special record.