There is a peculiar alchemy happening with Jimmy Eff and the Sundogs on their new single, “Better Like Before”. It sits in the air like the smell of ozone right after a lightning strike charged, crisp, and signifying a sudden shift in the atmosphere. You listen to it, and you sort of expect the industrial gray of their Birmingham home base, yet the sound comes out distinctively warmer, likely the result of their recording sessions in the Cotswolds. It’s polished, but not so much that you can’t see the grain of the wood.
Musically, the track strides confidently through a landscape of 60s classic rock textures and the undeniable hook-heavy swagger of 90s Britpop. But where lesser bands might use that sound to posture, Jimmy, Matt, Jon, and Chris use it to build a fortress. Chris, the band’s guitarist, channels something visibly raw here. This isn’t just a melody; it acts as a structural support beam.
The context is sobering. The song is a rally cry for Chris’s daughter, Erica, and her fight against aplastic anaemia. It brings to mind kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer. The music acknowledges the crack, the terrifying diagnosis, but the instrumentation becomes the gold filling the gap, insisting that the repaired object is more beautiful for having been broken. It captures the specific, terrified adrenaline of a hospital waiting room, yet flips it into a defiant chant of solidarity for the Aplastic Anaemia Trust’s upcoming campaign.
It reminds me of that specific shade of blue the sky turns at 4 AM not quite dark, not yet light, but holding the promise that the sun is absolutely inevitable.
This release doesn’t ask for pity; it demands movement. It views recovery not as a wish, but as a project requiring every hand on deck. Can a three-minute pop song alter a medical prognosis? Perhaps not directly, but “Better Like Before” certainly feels strong enough to hold up the ceiling while the healing takes place.
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