Declan Welsh And The Decadent West are set to release their new album Explicit Agitation on 12th February 2027, announcing the record alongside new single Run Down Small Town and double A-side track City Used To Be Alive. The announcement arrives as the Scottish band prepare to embark on an extensive UK and European headline tour, beginning in Glasgow next week before travelling across Britain and into mainland Europe throughout October.
Declan Welsh and The Decadent West
Explicit Agitation represents the most ambitious album yet from Declan Welsh and The Decadent West, bringing together the band’s trademark urgency and raw guitar sound with a broader and more politically charged perspective. Described as a state-of-the-nation address, the 11-track album confronts the social and economic pressures facing communities that have been hollowed out by decades of industrial decline and neglect. But while its anger is directed towards those issues, Explicit Agitation also explores more personal territory, addressing love, loneliness, lost faith and the search for greater self-awareness. The result is an album that places personal experiences alongside wider social and political concerns, with the band’s songwriting and musicianship providing the vehicle for both.
Musically, Explicit Agitation builds on the foundations established by the band’s debut album Cheaply Bought, Expensively Sold and its follow-up 2, combining the raw guitars and soaring hooks of the former with the increased ambition and focus of the latter. The album is produced by Chris Marshall, whose previous work includes sessions with Gerry Cinnamon and Callum Beattie, and is recorded at Mogwai’s Castle of Doom Studios in Glasgow.
The songs are written by Declan Welsh alongside bassist Ben Corlett and key collaborator Jamie Holmes, with additional contributions on selected tracks from Duncan McBride, Eryn Rae, Chris Small and featured artist PAQUE. Welsh describes Explicit Agitation as a record designed not simply to make listeners identify with its characters and experiences, but to challenge them to look beyond themselves. Its songwriting moves between personal confession, social observation and political argument, while the music pushes The Decadent West into new territory.
The album draws on an unusually broad range of influences, bringing elements of rock, hip-hop, funk and contemporary songwriting into the band’s established sound. That ambition is particularly evident in the way the record balances aggressive guitar-driven passages with rhythmic and melodic ideas that extend beyond conventional indie rock.
The first taste comes with Run Down Small Town, an uncompromising track that takes aim at the long-term decline of communities across Britain and beyond. Driven by rampaging alternative-rock guitars, pounding drums and floating synths, the song switches between minor and major tonalities to create a persistent sense of unease. Welsh’s vocals move between short, staccato bursts during the chorus and expansive verses that retain the distinctive character of his East Kilbride accent. The subject is close to home for Welsh, who grew up in a town that once had a Rolls-Royce factory but has since experienced a dramatic reduction in its industrial and commercial infrastructure.
Run Down Small Town asks what happens when the economic and social structures that once gave a community its identity disappear. Rather than simply documenting decline, the song focuses on the human consequences and the need for people living in those communities to feel that there remains a future worth believing in.
The track is released alongside City Used To Be Alive, a second new song that provides a parallel perspective by turning its attention from struggling smaller towns to the changing character of major cities. City Used To Be Alive is the first Declan Welsh and The Decadent West track to be solely produced and mixed by Welsh himself. He considers it a spiritual successor to the band’s fan favourite Aw The Time, continuing the group’s interest in using personal observation to explore wider social changes.
Together, the two songs establish some of the central themes of Explicit Agitation: changing communities, disappearing industries, social disconnection and the question of what remains when the structures that once held places together begin to disappear.
The new album also arrives at the end of a period of growing momentum for Declan Welsh and The Decadent West. The band have received national radio airplay, earned a Scottish Album of the Year nomination, headlined Glasgow Barrowland and appeared at major festivals including Glastonbury, TRNSMT and The Great Escape. They have also shared stages with The Reytons and Twin Atlantic, building a reputation around a live show that matches the intensity of their recorded material.
At the centre of the band’s current lineup is long-term bassist Ben Corlett, alongside a rotating cast of friends and musicians who have contributed to the group’s evolving sound.
The upcoming tour will give audiences an early opportunity to hear material from Explicit Agitation live. The UK run begins at Glasgow’s St Luke’s on 24th September before travelling through Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham, Bristol and London.
With Run Down Small Town setting the tone, Explicit Agitation promises to take the band’s socially conscious songwriting and hard-edged alternative rock into a bigger and more ambitious space.
Upcoming UK & Ireland Live Dates:
SEPTEMBER
24th – Glasgow, St. Luke’s
25th – Aberdeen, Tunnels
26th – Edinburgh, Cabaret Voltaire
27th – Newcastle, Little Buildings
29th – Manchester, FAC251
30th – Sheffield, Hallamshire Hotel
OCTOBER
1st – Leeds, Lending Room
2nd – Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
4th – Nottingham, Bodega
5th – Bristol, Rough Trade
6th – London, The Grace
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