Old Habits Die Hard

Old Habits Die Hard is FM’s fourteenth studio album, released on 3 May 2024. The Japanese pressing on Avalon / Marquee is a single CD of twelve tracks running about fifty-six minutes (MICP-11864, JAN 4527516023003); the international edition, on Frontiers, holds eleven. The band formed in 1984, which makes this their fortieth year. What has held steady since the 1986 debut Indiscreet is a British melodic writing that runs through the blues, and Steve Overland’s voice on top of it; neither is rebuilt here. The sequence opens on ‘Out of the Blue’ and continues through ‘Don’t Need Another Heartache’, ‘No Easy Way Out’ and ‘Lost’. ‘Whatever It Takes’, from the middle of the record, returns at the end of the Japanese pressing in an acoustic version. ‘Black Water’, ‘California’ and ‘Blue Sky Mind’ fill out a twelve-track album. Overland also records with Overland, Groundbreaker, Lonerider and Kings of Mercia; this is the band those sit around.