Doghouse: Ed Cosens releases first single from forthcoming solo album
The long-time Sheffield co-songwriter and chief lieutenant to The Rev Jon McClure, also a former bandmate of Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner and Matt Helders, Ed today released new single Doghouse.
LISTEN: Download, buy or stream the new single now – visit slinky.to/DoghouseEC.
It is the first track from his eagerly awaited second solo album and fans are loving it, describing the tune on social media posts as ‘brilliant’, ‘first class’ and ‘a banger’.
Ed, who posts as @edcosens on X, formerly Twitter, replied: “So much love for Doghouse today! Blown away. Thank you everyone who’s listened and shared. Keep spreading the word - Who’s heard it? Let me know what you think.”
It follows the super talented guitarist/bassist and songwriter;’s debut album, Fortunes Favour.
And to herald the new project he has released a music video – a special stripped back performance filmed exclusively live at Northern Cowboy Studios, Sheffield, with cameras, edit and sound by Thomas Dibb and Mark Lewis.
It features Ed on vocals and guitar, Adam Crofts on piano and backing vocals, Bryan Day, guitar and backing vocals, Antonia Pooles, bass and backing vocals, Dave Sanderson, guitar and Lucy Revis, cello.
VIDEO: Watch the official video for Doghouse on this page or on YouTube – CLICK HERE.
Ahead of Blue Monday, Ed says Doghouse is a song for anyone who has found themselves relegated to the couch during the festive come down.
“‘I’m in the Doghouse again... the couch is my only friend.’ he sings.
Ed explained: "This song exists for and because of those moments where you know you’ve messed up, totally put your foot in it, but that unshiftable male pride or sense of misplaced righteousness is only making things worse.
“It’s time for a good dose of damage limitation and to know when to shut up, just bloody apologise and pray for redemption. But you fear the worst. Maybe just maybe you’ll be forgiven... maybe.”
Teaming up with producer Dave Sanderson, with whom he has worked on multiple Reverend and The Makers albums, he added: “I have to give a good dollop of credit to Dave for guiding the song in the direction it went sonically and the feel it ended up with.
"He pushed me out of my comfort zone on the piano and this really made the song take shape. This is what I love about collaboration in the studio, the freedom to take things places you never would on your own.”
Doghouse also follows last October’s release Black Dog, which came out on World Mental Health Day. It’s a song which takes a metaphor for depression used by the likes of Samuel Johnson and Winston Churchill and runs with it.
Ed said: “I find myself wasting half a day waiting for the black dog to go away, before the idea unfolds, of being unable to shake this dark presence from your everyday existence.
“It’s just about waking up and feeling in that dark place where you feel unable to function."
The song was completed at a songwriting retreat last summer hosted by the Buddy Holly Foundation. The setting for the retreat was a location that is special to him – Whitby, his old childhood holiday destination.
Ed added: “Whitby is a place that over the years I have felt able to get away and clear my head. Perhaps the synergy of that place and that moment helped bring the song to life.”
Talking about the personal nature of these songs, he explains: “These things stay with you sometimes and whilst at the time they may be dicult, at least they provide a rich seam of ideas and lyrics that can be mined at a later date!
"I hope they help start a conversation and spread mental health awareness further.”
Ed will soon be announcing details of his highly anticipated sophomore album and accompanying tour.
Reverend & The Makers’ debut single, Heavyweight Champion Of The World, was co-written by Ed, like much of the Makers’ material. It went Top 10 in the UK and won the band a gold disc. Its accompanying debut album, The State Of Things, reached number five in the album charts.
Over the years that followed Reverend and the Makers ploughed a less conventional musical furrow that would veer ambitiously (and inimitably) across a broad musical landscape into more electronically influenced sounds, folk-rock territory and more recently, before this year’s Heatwave In The Cold North, a distinctly R&B and soul-flavoured sound, that earned the band their second top 10 UK album.
That seventh studio set was their first since 2017 and during their hiatus, Ed saw long-harboured ambitions to launch a solo career finally bear fruit.
His debut album, Fortune’s Favour, although delayed by the Covid pandemic hit, and not promoted as widely as intended due to lockdown restrictions, gained good reviews in outlets such as Uncut and guitar.com.
His forthcoming second album is set to delve into more personal territory for inspiration.
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