Walt Disco embrace uncertainty and sound more like themselves than ever

Walt Disco’s self-titled third album is a reset rather than a clean break: a chance to sharpen their vision and work out exactly what this band can be. Their debut, Unlearning, was met with widespread praise and marked them out as one of the UK alternative scene’s most distinctive acts. Its follow-up, The Warping, was more ambitious and more uncertain, and by their own admission, it left them feeling lost. They even considered walking away from the name Walt Disco altogether. Now they’ve embraced that uncertainty, and they sound more sure of themselves than ever.

They pull from the noisy alt-rock of Smashing Pumpkins, the swagger of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the hazy dream-pop of Cocteau Twins. Opener ‘My Body Knows When To Run’ goes industrial, its crashing bass drum sounding like chains being flung free — the sound of finally coming up for air.

‘Lies’ is the album’s standout. “I’ll fake it ’til I break it” lands like a mantra, Jocelyn Si’s voice burrowing into your head until you’re singing it back yourself. It’s the kind of song that makes you stop, rewind and go again. ‘Coup de Foudre’ follows with sharp guitars and a glam-rock strut, sounding fresh without losing the eccentricity that makes Walt Disco tick. This is the band at their loosest — playful, assured and completely at home in their own vibrant world.

Then the mood shifts. ‘Total Surprise Machine’ wraps itself around you like a Celtic ballad — warm, raw and timeless — its vulnerability cutting through the album’s flamboyance as though Jocelyn Si is singing directly to you. ‘My Body’s Still Mine’ is darker and more insistent, its pounding drums eating away at the silence as the words land like a statement. “It’s just a splinter, I’m sucking out quite smoothly” is a line that sticks, while the music creates the strange sensation of floating on water — calm on the surface, with something bleaker beneath. It’s one of the album’s most affecting moments.

Closer ‘Wonderland’ starts with a whisper before opening out into something cinematic and theatrical, growing bigger with every passing moment. By the final notes, there’s a real sense of arrival: the sound of coming through the struggle and finding your way out the other side.

Walt Disco aren’t perfect, and neither is this album, but perhaps that’s where its charm lies. There’s something thrilling about a band still figuring things out, taking risks and refusing to sand down their rough edges. In an increasingly polished world, they’re all the more compelling for staying unapologetically themselves. Unlearning put them on the map, The Warping was their crossroads, and Walt Disco is where they arrive.

Label: EMI NORTH

Release date: 2^nd October

Best track: ‘Lies’