Underlowe are a Cardiff, Wales rock outfit built on years of shared musical history. Guitarist Jacob Dennis, an 18-year player and Cardiff University music graduate with a long list of solo releases and production credits, anchors the band alongside Alfie Mac on bass, lead vocals, and lyrics, a five-year collaborator he met at university and now works with at a Cardiff city centre bar. Drummer Isaac Walker, Alfie’s childhood best friend from Oxfordshire and a former bandmate of his in Sprung From Cages, channels influences like John Bonham and Keith Moon behind the kit, while the newest member, Keaton Lammy, brings keys and additional vocals to the band after cutting his teeth as a church gospel keyboard player. Their new single, “No Pictures,” is their sophomore release following debut single “Carpark.”
No Pictures
“No Pictures” opens on a cold, stripped-back intro, filtered vocals and layered clean guitars over reverberating arpeggios, before the crash of distortion pulls the song into a bigger, more assertive alternative rock gear. That contrast between the hushed opening and the full-band payoff is the track’s biggest strength, and it gives the song a real sense of build rather than staying in one gear throughout. The influence of 2000s pop-punk acts like Green Day, Blink-182, and Good Charlotte comes through clearly in the chugging powerchords, while the production leans on a more modern edge inspired by Turnstile and Jack White’s solo work, double-tracked guitars and bass thickening the mix into something bigger than the four-piece setup might suggest. Galloping snare fills from Walker and a winding, intricate guitar solo add extra texture without cluttering the arrangement, and the vocal filtering throughout gives the whole thing a nostalgic, Y2K-tinged pop-punk character. Lyrically, the song is built around a simple idea: living in the moment instead of constantly performing life for an audience, an idea that grew out of a voice-note jam session the band had kept in their back pocket for over a year before finally building it into a full song.
The single also comes with a music video from videographer Sam Harris, shot on a shoestring budget but built with real style, leaning into playful, charismatic performances from the band that match the song’s message about stepping away from constant documentation.
Final Thoughts
“No Pictures” is a confident sophomore single from a band that clearly put care into every layer of the production, and it should land well with anyone who grew up on 2000s pop-punk looking for a modern update on that sound. Underlowe play The Fleece in Bristol on September 6th in support of the release. You can stream the single via Spotify, and follow the band on Instagram and TikTok.
What did you think of “No Pictures”? Stay tuned to MusicOnTheRox.com for all your music news and reviews.
