As Oscar Lang’s second album hovered into view, the singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist from West London imagined a sound that would blend upbeat 80s grooves, breezy indie-pop and a disco swing. Except Oscar Lang’s second album does not blend upbeat 80s grooves and breezy indie-pop. It definitely does not have a disco swing. A split from his childhood sweetheart sent Lang spiralling, dramatically changing the course of the follow-up to the psychedelic-tinged fuzzy-rock of his 2021 debut Chew The Scenery at the same time as driving Lang into the most creatively fruitful period of his short career. “Going through a break-up completely changed everything,” he says. “I started writing ballads about it and then realised, ‘this is what I want it to be’. For a while, I was doing guitar rock songs trying to be a rock star but then I realised that I just really love ballads. My biggest inspirations are people that can just sit at the piano and sing a song everyone can relate to.”
