SICKY - Troubled Delight
British indie alt-pop artist SICKY presents his new album 'Troubled Delight', an album that lives up to its name, doing exactly what it says on the tin. Dark, empowering, frightened, fun, determined and absolutely fearless. He also presents the video for 'Slide', capturing the gritty reality of a relapse into harmful behaviour and the painful aftermath, reflecting a deeply personal and relatable struggle.
SICKY is the solo project of Mick Butler, whose brand of Britpop-infused indie rock borrows flickering elements from Beck, Supergrass and Blur. Originally from England's Black Country, he now lives in Shropshire. Formerly with several bands, ranging from the brass-soaked pop of Papa Mantra to the dirty stomp of SUMO, Butler now derives pleasure from banging out new SICKY material.
This is SICKY's third album to date - a more organic beast than his 2023 widely acclaimed sophomore album 'Garbage Town', featuring instruments "borrowed from the kids' music room", he says, "including a broken violin, a ukulele, gloks, bells, drums and a mouth organ… Anything you could get a noise out of really". Literally everything you hear in his music is him squeezing noises out of anything that'll sing.
"This was an accidental project. It started with a sketchy song idea, which led to another to another. It's my way of venting life, offloading the good and bad stuff it throws your way. It's better than carrying it around with you. I feel very lucky to have this musical release so I can reboot and move on. Hopefully the songs are relatable to people, because surely we're not all that different are we?" says Mick Butler.
"'Troubled Delight' was a load of fun to make. Every track is under three minutes, so blink and you’ll miss it. Three songs feature Jen Bone (Project Blues Band) on double bass, adding a bounce and flow to proceedings. My niece (Rebecca Butler) sang on 'Mankind' after a big night out on the town and somehow still managed to sound like an angel. And last but by no means least, we have Lily (10) and Scarlet (8) on backing vocals for 'I'm Happy If You're Happy', adding in some junior punk chaos.
He adds, "This album kicks off with 'Billy Cousins', a fictional character - an imaginary superhero you can pretend to be when you find yourself doubting everything. Other songs are about real life happenings. Happy moments, fallings out, false promises. Hopefully there's a sense of fun even in the darker moments; you don't have to make depressing music to talk about hard life realities in my book."
'Ten Minutes' features Bridgnorth’s St.Leonard’s church bell. 'Money For The News' has the sliding doors of a Stourbridge shopping centre. 'My Girl’s Gone' features a snippet from the film 'Quatermass and the Pit' with kind permission from Hammer Films in London. 'The Hill' recounts the pain of a 22-mile charity walk (never again!) and kind of feels like a metaphor for life."
SICKY first appeared on the scene (in this incarnation) during the lockdowns of 2021, releasing his debut album 'Bowling Balls', which was partially inspired by Prince, Bowie and Ray Bradbury's book 'The Martian Chronicles'.
As of February 14, the 'Troubled Delight' album is available from fine digital platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp.
