Released on 9th October, ‘England’s Hurricane Season’ is Dale’s interpretation of how it feels to be a working-class man in the current climate, told through the intricate guitar, melody and storytelling that have become so characteristic of Glad Town Ghost.

A synth-led introduction brings an almost haunting quality from the outset, before that familiar guitar picking appears. Watching Dale play is fascinating in itself; the intricacy of the guitar work is mesmerising, yet somehow he lays an entire story over the top of it. And that storytelling is not only typical but also vital.

There’s no apparent need to stick rigidly to conventional songwriting rules here. Lines don’t have to be a certain length or neatly rhyme, and there’s no reliance on repetition simply to fill the required minutes. Instead, a Glad Town Ghost song is allowed to go wherever its story needs to take it. There are narratives, chapters, openers and closers, all carried by a folk sensibility and an ear for melody that holds everything together. The additional vocals from Oui Bee complement rather than simply mirror Dale’s. There are some beautiful counter notes and melodies within the harmonies, bringing a desolate, almost echoing quality to the track. Again, nothing feels as though it has been added because that is simply where a harmony would normally go; there’s real thought and consideration behind it.

The tone of the song puts me in mind of a 1950’s Lowry painting. That sense of mechanical monotony, quiet dignity and shared rhythms of everyday working life, with people moving through a landscape that has already been shaped for them. Against that, Dale introduces the information handed down by ‘those in power’; what life will be like, what it should look like, perhaps even what we should aspire to. There’s something unsettling about the ease with which people can be led by those claiming to know how things are.

“You were walking in a dream.”

And later: “I was a silly old man, the way I have always been.”

There are mysteries scattered throughout the song too, including references to the JFK assassination and a skeleton found in a tree, that provide plenty of prod for the grey matter. Perhaps there’s also a wider question sitting amongst them about the things we’re told exist elsewhere, in the next field or over the pond, and what we might discover if we actually dared to go and look for ourselves.

One section particularly stayed with me;

“It’s always Joy coming to catch us,

Whenever we fall,

Joy writes the saddest songs of all.”

Taken one way, there’s something reassuring; someone catching us when we fall and setting us upright again. Yet within the atmosphere of ‘England’s Hurricane Season’, I hear something considerably more chilling. There’s almost a sense of those with authority finding satisfaction in watching the people beneath them stumble, before writing the story of that failure themselves. For those already trying to meet the expectations, toil and tribulations society places upon them, those become very sad songs indeed.

Towards the end, Dale introduces another layer entirely, with archival BBC audio from the 1950s discussing immigrant workers and the attitudes of England and its native population towards them. I won’t spoil where it goes, but its inclusion in a song being released in 2026 certainly gives you something to think about, and is not the only part that makes ‘England’s Hurricane Season’ worth listening to more than once.

Glad Town Ghost releases ‘England’s Hurricane Season’ on the 9th October, ahead of the forthcoming EP ‘A New Coat of Arms’, due out on the 13th November. And if this track is an indication of what is to come on that EP, expect more grounded storytelling, intricate musicianship and beautiful melodies from an artist who understands that sometimes a song needs a greater stage and backdrop to tell the whole story.

6th October 2026