English Country by CUSP – Album Review
By Brad Jones
It’s often hard to strike the right balance between rawness and replication when it comes to a debut album, and understandably so. But for Milton Keynes trio CUSP, their album English Country finds an assured middle ground.
The band’s musical and emotional maturity throughout is the result of years of hard work to reach this seminal point in their trajectory. For lead vocalist Dan Stock, the foundations were set during his solo career, which started in 2018, and it’s clear to see from the get-go just how much progression has been made from then until now.
Opening track ‘English Country’ immediately establishes everything this album is about. The juxtaposition of contemplative lyrics set upon euphoric, energetic guitar riffs injects new life into the nostalgia-driven ’90s indie sound. ‘Forever, Forever’, a song that has attracted a lot of attention after being released as the album’s last single, continues in that same vein, with Stock’s vocals adding a sense of aching and vulnerability to the melody’s anthemic feel.
The mood then drifts into a more melancholic passage. ‘Me and Lily in the Falling Rain’ touches further upon making peace with a tendency to catastrophise and finding someone or something that feels right in spite of life’s troubles. The gentle tone of the chorus helps to transport us to the unique, safe place a person can provide.
Cusp, 2026
image: Jake Boykew
“Grounded optimism”
In the fourth track, ‘Edge of Tears’, the journey goes to a darker, emotional place, which is elevated by the orchestral instrumentation. The line “Is anybody home except that old depression, that takes the wonder out of walking round an English garden” effectively calls back to what Stock had symbolised as an escape in the opening track.
From then on, there is a building sense of hope from the first note of ‘Love Is a Dying Art’. The rolling, rising melody drives the album forward going into ‘Human Nature’, a song which provides warmth and grounded optimism for the future. The inclusion of Tom A Smith’s raspy vocals adds urgency and defiance to Stock’s desire to ‘get his shit together’. When they close the song out in unison, it replicates that feeling of a close friend or family member putting their arm around you and kicking you into gear.
That same sentiment carries into ‘Temporary Sky’, which unearths that familiar feeling of searching for and wanting more from life, encapsulated succinctly by the line: “The place I was born, isn’t where I wanna die”. The song’s euphoric crescendo is sure to make you ready to make that leap.
The more stripped-back ‘Help Yourself’ slows things down in a timely manner, with the slight crackles in Stock’s vocal inflections adding sincerity to the emotional storytelling and sombre string elements.
“Warmth and introspection”
The album does a fantastic job of depicting the to and fro of love and life, and that is no more evident than in ‘Caledonia’. A song about fighting the feelings of staying or leaving and navigating the uncertainty of drifting apart, the instrumental switch from a mellow, drifting sound into a heavier, grittier conclusion captures that unpredictability magnificently.
There is no doubt inspiration which spans right from Bruce Springsteen’s storytelling through Britpop’s existential core and into the modern day, but CUSP have carved out a balance by taking elements of comforting, timeless familiarity and making it their own.
‘Shadow Boxing’ closes the album out with that signature blend of warmth and introspection and epitomises their ability not to stomp on well-trodden ground, but to stroll through it and leave their own mark with consideration. Like a nice walk in the English country, you might say.
Having spent most of the seven years since studying Sports Journalism at university producing TV guide magazines at the Press Association, as well as creating programme content for Hull City and venturing into music reviews, Brad quickly learnt the joy that comes with the variety of a career in journalism. Getting a story published in Karan Tejwani’s Iberia Chronicles book in 2020 gave him the bug for bringing stories to life on anything he’s passionate about ever since, which ranges from food to football and stand-up comedy to solo holidays.
