Words: Gareth O’Malley

My god. To release one spectacular single is quite common. To release two in a row merits considerable interest, but to put out three on the trot is nothing short of unbelievable.

Unbelievable, yes, but not impossible. Just ask Guy Connelly and Clock Opera. The chop-pop wizard is back, and his backing band seem to have become part of the studio line-up. A few press shots I’ve seen have featured all four members and not just one.

This is quite good, of course, as the full-band setup only heightens anticipation for their debut album, due to be released in the New Year. They’re working with Graeme Stewart, who was the studio engineer for Radiohead during the ‘Kid A’ and ‘Amnesiac’ sessions. Can’t be just me who thinks of this pairing as perfect, surely?

‘Once And For All’ follows ‘White Noise’ and ‘A Piece of String’, and successfully trumps them both. A swirling electronic landscape serves as the backdrop for Connelly’s voice, which has arguably never sounded better: his spine-tingling falsetto, employed during the soaring chorus, adds considerable weight to the track. And then when the harmony enters for the second chorus… words fail me. It’s just sublime, like everything else about this song.

‘Once And For All’ is the best thing Connelly’s been involved in since his Fallout Trust days and the majority of the material that ended up on ‘In Case Of The Flood’, and the level of anticipation for the full length has gone through the roof. It’s hard to see the record being anything short of stellar - and Connelly’s consistency has always been his strongest point. Excited? We are; you should be.

Once And For All (Original_2010) by clockopera

[We’ll be making the Little Loud remix available as soon as we can. There is a video on the way too - and this one seems as though it’ll be used, unlike the ‘A Piece of String’ video which ended up being shelved. Should be interesting to see.]