Countdown to Christmas: December 15th in OUTSIDELEFT

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Probably needs no further explanation but a big chunk of our 2025 seasonal celebrations are being administered by a tag team of our writers, Ogglypoogly and DJ Fuzzyfelt

SEB LOWE
Never let it be said that I don't have an enormous weakness for songs that are catchier than the scratchy side of velcro in a fluff factory. It feels inevitable that I'd find Seb Lowe, through either my first born, or the Al overlords, on the streaming platform that shan't be named. Less expected though was Tik-Tok, where many hours are spent trying to ignore my own thoughts and bore myself to sleep, and because algorithms are well trained - my ‘feed’ remains overrun with the magnificently erudite snippets of what's soon to be released by to Oldham's angry young man himself.

And gosh, he is young at the tender age of 22, Lowe is fast becoming the voice of the disenfranchised left, but without falling into the trap of being so elevated on an Ivory tower that he's as sneeringly awful as the privileged or under-privileged opinions he's so concisely calling out. A theme notably he's covered in his most recent release 'I'm Hateful, I'm Horrible, I Love You'

In spite of his prolific output year, there is no album or EP to conveniently review, but a string of singles, each one of the same remarkable quality as the last and somehow the sentiment never gets tired (though I'm bias with my political leanings and inclusive beliefs).

Are there echoes of influential bands adding to his appeal as a songwriter? Of course there are - but it's not a derivative pull from the talent of others, more a colour here and a shape there.

It feels like a lazy comparison, but I can't shake the feeling that Seb taking up the polincally. charged torch from Billy Bragg, because whilst absolutely others in the intervening decades have used their talents and platform to spread their message, few have done so without being pretentious or from the clouds of art-school alternative personality syndrome.

Seb Lowe is out there making some dangerously infectious music, scratching the punk-folk itch you didn't know had. It's insanely difficult to you Choose only one track to feature, so I've had the first born do so for me!