REVIEW : HELLO COSMOS – COME OUT TONIGHT (2026)
‘Come Out Tonight’ is the new album from Hello Cosmos. Their first studio album proper in five long years, the songs are united by recurrent messages of both urgency and hope, as the world we live in spirals beyond recognition. Studio recording sessions took place in New York City, Los Angeles, Kampala, Leeds, Manchester, and their base at the Welkin Mill in Stockport. A new look line-up, Hello Cosmos currently feature leader and creative force Ben Robinson and his brother Simon (drums), and Angela Chan (strings/synth Placebo / Lanterns on the Lake), performing alongside bassist/percussionist Isaac Dobson (Dobbo) and guitarist Alex Beston of Vacant Weekend, Frankie Pigeon (sax/synth Dilettante/BC Camplight), and harmonica player Oli Brown (Herelduke).
`Joy Is The Way` has a rolling rhythmic backbeat with poetical observations shared in a spoken word oration and becomes fairly soothing and at the same time absorbing. We have in `Grind Into The Shrine` a number about adulting, parenting and looking for those slim moments of paradise that take a lot of the daily grind while at the same time not letting the world get on top of you and finding the time to live, to get out of the house and celebrate life. An upbeat offering that races along with feelings that are shared as if a life depended on their dispersal.
`Spin the wheel` has a tribal feel and reminded me of some of Mark E Smith`s more lucid moments. There was a kind of anxiety or unease running through the heart of `Turn off the News` both musically and lyrically until the halfway mark. It then became more calm and reflective before building to a restrained climax.
`Echo A2Z` is a jagged mismatch of sounds with vocals that are languidly shared atop whereas `Gig Buddies` races along with a discourse on the music industry, making music but also the joys of going to a live show with your mates.
`FUK ZUK` is a criticism against the digital and political establishment over a stop start angular auditory backing. Although `Hot Seat` musically is a headrush of sorts, lyrically it extols the advantages of relinquishing anger and resentment.
There`s a chilled out sense of contemplation with `Awake & Bake` which reflects on first steps and friendships. A self-help manta of sorts. We return to the previous angular jagged noise with the nigh on hypnotic `Black Gloss`.
The album closes with `Old friends know` a concluding meditation on life. A deeply reflective listen with a brief intergalactic segment and orchestrated strings, a delightfully ethereal piece.
Hello Cosmos state that “We fuse post-punk, rave, spoken word, and psychedelia into an ecstatic, urgent sound that’s as much about creative resistance as cathartic release” and with `Come Out Tonight, it`d be hard to disagree.
It`s a release that will need time to seep into your soul and will offer something different each time you return to listen.
Rating 8.5/10
