It’s eight years since The Temperance Movement released “A Deeper Cut”, and their absence has been felt. You only had to look at the scramble for tickets when they returned in 2025 to understand how much. As we said on these pages at the time, they were in absolutely incendiary form. The songs, the chemistry, the sheer joy of it all: everything that made them special was still there.
Given that, the next question was obvious. What happens when they make another record?
For “New Promise Land Incorporated”, they’ve enlisted legendary producer Ethan Johns and returned with ten songs that suggest there was plenty left to say.
“Shadows” is perhaps a little harsher than you remember. Under three minutes long, it has a psychedelic edge, and serves as a reminder that The Temperance Movement were never quite the straightforward classic rock band their debut might have suggested. There was always something more going on, even when the riffs made it easy to overlook.
“Eat You Alive” is closer to what you might have expected, and Phil Campbell’s voice has lost none of its character. That soulful howl remains one of the great weapons in their armoury, capable of making even the most familiar territory feel alive.
“Silverlight Blues” slows things down and brings a little country flavour with it. The solo is a beauty, but it’s the sense of putting yourself back together that really lands. When Campbell sings about making himself whole again, you begin to wonder whether they needed this return every bit as much as we did.
There’s a burst of garage rock energy to “Love Kicks”, before “Scars” offers another reminder of their ambition. They have always pushed at the boundaries of what people expected from them, and the song underlines how much that willingness to explore matters.
Then there’s “Mongrels”. “We were mongrels all our days,” they sing, before adding, “Let them write us off the page.” Perhaps that’s an admission that they never quite fitted in. Perhaps they never particularly wanted to. Either way, there’s something rather fitting about hearing it on this record.
“Hometown Kings & Queens”, the longest track here, is something of an epic. More than that, though, it brings the struggles running through these songs into focus. “I choose love again” and “I forgive myself” are simple lines with considerable weight. There’s a vulnerability here that gives the music its purpose.
“Always Been Love” brings Luke Potashnick’s distinctive riffing to the fore. Some guitarists have a sound you recognise immediately, and this could only be this band.
They have always excelled at the slower songs, too. “Chinese Lanterns” proved that on the debut, and “Saving Grace” is further evidence. It’s another moment where Campbell’s delivery carries as much feeling as the words themselves.
Closing track “Let It All Out” returns to the mental health themes, and by now the sense of catharsis is difficult to miss. This feels like music made by people who needed to make it.
Whenever a band comes back, there’s a danger of them becoming trapped by their own legacy. You want them back, of course, but you don’t want the musical equivalent of one of those awful remakes of a brilliant TV show.
“New Promise Land Incorporated” avoids that trap. It feels like a continuation of where The Temperance Movement should be round about now, and it’s all the better for it.
How far it takes them, and whether they reach the heights they once seemed destined for, who knows? For now, “New Promise Land Incorporated” is a return to the promised land.
And it is most welcome.
Rating: 8.5/10
