THE ROOM – DOOM POP!
A SPILL EXCLUSIVE ALBUM PREMIERE
More than four decades after emerging from Liverpool’s post-punk underground, The Room have returned with Doom Pop!, their new album for 9×9 Records, accompanied by a video for the title track “The Room”. The remarkable part of their story is not simply that the band formed in 1979 and eventually reunited, but that their return has resulted in a substantial body of new music that connects the spirit of their original work with the unsettled world of today. Against all odds, Doom Pop! sounds less like a reunion than a band hitting a fresh creative stride — sharp, assured and bristling with ideas.
The Room emerged at a crucial moment in UK music, when the energy of punk was developing into something more experimental and open-ended. Formed by Dave Jackson and Becky Stringer, the band quickly became favourites of John Peel, recording four sessions for his BBC programme, and appeared on “The Old Grey Whistle Test.” Their growing reputation brought them into the orbit of some of the era’s most influential musicians, including Television’s Tom Verlaine and producer John Porter (Roxy Music, The Smiths, Billy Bragg), who worked with the band on “In Evil Hour.” The band’s angular musicianship, melodic instinct and Jackson’s sharply observed lyrics made them one of Liverpool’s more distinctive post-punk voices, even if they never received the wider recognition their work deserved.
After the band split in 1985, Jackson and Stringer continued their musical partnership in Benny Profane, Dust and Dead Cowboys, while Jackson pursued further recording projects of his own. Then, in 2022, The Room reformed, with Jackson, Stringer and original drummer Clive Thomas joined by guitarist Darren Brown and keyboardist Ethan Kyme. The return has developed into a genuine second phase for the band and The Room has shown themselves to be among Liverpool’s musical assets.
The new album takes its title from the uneasy collision between pop immediacy and contemporary dread. Its songs address authoritarianism, disinformation, war and paranoia, but The Room explore those concerns through the imaginative territory that has long informed their work, including science fiction, horror and cinema. The result is a record concerned with the darker realities of modern life without becoming narrowly political, moving between the external threats of a fractured world and the more mysterious psychological spaces created by fear, memory and uncertainty.
The song “The Room” draws directly on Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Stalker” and its mysterious Zone, where a guide leads visitors through a landscape transformed by forces beyond their understanding. That premise suits The Room’s fascination with uncertainty and dislocation, and the song becomes a natural centrepiece for an album that repeatedly blurs the boundaries between reality and imagined worlds.
The album also reaches back into The Room’s own history with a new recording of “Things Have Learnt to Walk that Ought to Crawl,” originally written during the band’s early period and one of only three songs from the 1980s that remain in their live repertoire. Its jangling guitars and restless momentum sit naturally alongside the new material, making the track feel less like an archival revisit than a bridge between the band’s two eras.
What makes Doom Pop! so effective is the ease with which it brings The Room’s post-punk instincts into the present. Wiry guitars, restless rhythms and sharp melodic hooks sit alongside darker, more dissonant textures, while the songwriting takes aim at political paranoia, technological unease and the instability of modern life. The album’s best moments fuse those concerns with its fascination with science fiction, horror and the surreal, creating music that is atmospheric without losing its immediacy. Rather than looking backwards, Doom Pop! sounds alert, purposeful and genuinely alive.
That is particularly significant given the band’s place in Liverpool’s post-punk history. They were part of a generation that helped expand the possibilities of independent music, demonstrating that experimentation and melody did not have to be opposing forces. Their association with Peel, their work with some of the defining figures of the period and their standing within Liverpool’s fiercely creative music community all underline the importance of their contribution. The fact that they have now returned to make music that reflects the concerns of another era gives that history renewed relevance without requiring the new work to depend upon it.
Doom Pop! is ultimately strongest when it trusts The Room’s instincts: sharp songs, restless arrangements, memorable melodies and a willingness to find inspiration in unsettling places. The album acknowledges where the band came from, but its attention is fixed firmly on the present. For a group whose original story ended more than forty years ago, this is an impressive second act — not a reconstruction of what The Room once were, but a convincing reminder of what they can still become.
Doom Pop! is out September 4 via 9×9 Records on CD and limited-edition mixed eco-vinyl, with both physical formats available in North America through Darla Records. The album will also be available digitally, including through Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp.
You can also enjoy two videos released in support of this release:
The Room
Doom Pop!
(9×9 Records)
Release Date: September 4, 2026
Artist Links
Background Photo Credit: The Room
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