30 Goes Around the Sun

In March 2014, the Wonder Stuff frontman Miles Hunt decided the band needed a line-up change; drummer Fuzz Townshend, who became a TV presenter, and guitarist Stevie Wyatt, who Hunt thought was not a good fit for the band, left amicably. Around this time, drummer Tony Arthy departed from Jesus Jones. He added recorded EPs with Hunter in 2000, and joined the Wonder Stuff upon being asked. Hunt came across guitarist Dan Donnelly at the end of the 2000s while he and violinist Erica Nockalls were performing on their Never Ending Acoustic Tour. Donnelly audition for Hunt, and was promptly added to the line-up. Hint began writing material for the band's next album at his home, where he made demo recordings. Despite a fruitful January 2015, which saw the creation of five songs, for the next two months, Hunt struggled for more songs. He told Arthy about this, who then asked how the original line-up wrote their debut studio album The Eight Legged Groove Machine (1988), to which he replied by jamming in a rehearsal space. At Arthy's suggestion, all of the members met up in Stourbridge in May 2015 for a period of three days to come up with new songs.[1]

Simon Efemey, their long-term sound engineer, visited them; they were located half a mile away from where Efemey first worked with them in 1986. He would sit on the floor and encourage the band when they reached a dead-end with a track. Rough iterations of the six songs they came up with were made; Hunt worked on them further at his home.[1] Recording for their next album took place at Mockingbird Studio in Stourbridge with Efemey as producer.[1] The studio was owned by Ross Syner and Harvey Champion, who also owned the rehearsal space that the band were previously at.[2] Sessions were covered by money the band accumulated while promoting their seventh studio album Oh No It's... The Wonder Stuff (2012). Some of the money was earned through the crowdfunding platform PledgeMusic, which Arthy had worked with previously, though Hunt was apprehensive to the idea initially.[1] Recording began in October 2015 and finished in January 2016. Syner and Champion served as engineers. Efemey mixed the recordings, while Kevin Metcalfe mastered them at Soundmasters.[2]

Hunt found it difficult to write lyrics for the album compared to the band's past releases: "So writing this time was harder because writing the book [based on his diaries] meant I could play with words and sentences there were no rules and then the next writing was constrained to rhythm and rhyme".[3] The album's name alludes to the 30th anniversary of the band entering a studio for the first time.[4] In "Don't You Ever", Hunt said that despite not believing in a deity, he sometimes "can't help but feel that there has been someone watching over me, testing me, judging me". "In Clover" tackles lead singer of bands being seen as false idols; with "For the Broken Hearted", Hunt likened the process of therapy to being machine-like. "Good Deeds & Highs" is dedicated to Hunt's friends Laura and Lilly. "One Day On (So Far Away)" sees Hunt contemplate self-improvement, while "The Affirmation" was the first track written for the album, dealing with having a purpose in life.[2]

"Last Days of the Feast" was written ahead of the 2015 UK general election, as Hunt was "optimistic that we might see the back of the Tory bully boys that had been in charge for too long".[2] "The Kids from the Green" is about a child entering adulthood, which Hunt took inspiration from his youth for.[5][2] Discussing "Weakened", Hunt explained that he would not typically give relationship advice when asked, but might if he was in the mood to.[2] It recalled "Donation", a track from the band's third studio album Never Loved Elvis (1991), with its aggressive guitar riffs and forceful drums.[4] The drum pattern in "Misunderstanding Burton Heel" echoed the one in "Ruby Horse", a track from The Eight Legged Groove Machine.[6] Burton Heel is a character that Hunt had planned to include in a novel he was writing.[2] The album's closing track, "30 Goes Around the Sun", is an abbreviated version of the band's history up to that point, and had the same happy atmosphere as "Full of Life (Happy Now)" from their fourth studio album Construction for the Modern Idiot (1993).[4][5]

30 Goes Around the Sun was released on 18 March 2016; it was celebrated with an anniversary tour of the UK.[3][7] The album peaked at number 38 on the UK Albums Chart, marking the band's first appearance on it in 22 years; for all of the members bar Hunt, this was the first time an album they appeared on charted.[1][8] They followed this by festival appearances between May and November 2016, including Isle of Wight, Buryfields and Shiiine On.[3] A music video for "For the Broken Hearted" was posted on YouTube on 29 July 2016.[9] The For the Broken Hearted EP was released on 5 August 2016, featuring "For the Broken Hearted", "Too Far to Fall" and "Indestructible".[10] A music video for "Good Deeds & Highs" was posted on YouTube on 4 December 2016.[11]

30 Goes Around the Sun was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. Louder Than War writer Paul Scott-Bates felt that Nockalls' violin save the album from "bordering on becoming a little too ‘middle-aged-man safe'". He complimented Efemey's production as it regularly "reaches pinnacles which would be very easy to fall from".[5] Loz Etheridge of God Is in the TV though it was a "natural successor to Never Loved Elvis than anything the band have recorded since", saying that Nockalls' skills bested their former violinist Martin Bell.[4] HuffPost's Tim Thornton said that if listeners were interested in "driven, unambiguously well-crafted alternative rock that isn't cluttered with fake passion or constant references to who the singer texted while drunk last night, I can't think of a better place to get it than" this album. He added that Nockalls "shapes much of this album's sound not only with her strings, but with her spot-on backing vocals".[6]

All music written by The Wonder Stuff, all lyrics by Miles Hunt.[2]

Personnel per booklet.[2]

• 30 Goes Around the Sun at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)