Pure Adulterated Joy by Morning Parade

Pure Adulterated Joy came out on Parlophone and Astralwerks in 2014, two years after Morning Parade's self-titled debut and in the band's final year: the Harlow five-piece broke up on 4 December 2014. They had formed in 2007 and signed to Parlophone in 2010, with Steve Sparrow singing and playing piano and guitar, Phil Titus on bass, Chad Thomas on guitar, Ben Giddings on piano and synths and Andrew Hayes on drums. Sparrow and Titus went all the way back to school together at Burnt Mill Academy and had later worked side by side as labourers.

"Alienation" is the song that reached the countdowns, and with two keyboard players in the lineup, their alternative rock has a glassy, surging lift to it, the kind of big-sky sound that wants a festival field at dusk.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.