One Day This Will All Be Lore (Dinked Edition #443)

Blue Bendy barely emerged from 2024, so the fact that they are releasing any music at all at the tail end of 2026 is a minor miracle. That the music they are sharing on their sophomore album, ‘One Day This Will All Be Lore’, is such an accomplished and fully realised record is testament to the dogged perseverance they have shown throughout their nascent career. To quickly cast our minds back, in 2024 Blue Bendy had just released a hugely critically acclaimed album that ended up on Pitchfork’s AOTY list among others and received accolades from all corners of the music press. 

They were just embarking on what should have been a celebratory UK tour, but no sooner had ‘So Medieval’ arrived and the band started disintegrating in real time. Due to alcoholism, singer Arthur Nolan was unable to meaningfully take part in the live shows so the tour was promptly cancelled one show in. Two founding members, Harrison Charles and Oscar Tebbutt, left the band and they quietly retreated from the public eye to go on hiatus. As Arthur worked on his health and the dust settled, each member of the band started developing ideas and the road to recovery - on a personal and group level - became an artistic endeavour on its own.

Two new members, Dina Willcock (bass) and Tristan Petsola (drums), were recruited alongside Joseph Nash (guitar), Olivia Morgan (keys), Oliver Chester-Nolan (guitar) and Arthur (vocals) and Blue Bendy were six again. The band gently tested the water with a smattering of festival slots and headline shows to try out new material and give their favourites from ‘So Medieval’ some much deserved love. 

And then in Germany, at the end of a tour in Europe, disaster struck again. Having worked incredibly hard, it was just one show too much and Arthur fell off the wagon, missed the flight home and was marooned in Germany for over a week, completely out of contact and drinking heavily before emerging in a sanatorium in Cologne - referenced in the album closer ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’. Blue Bendy did what they do and regrouped, huddled round their singer and provided the support and space he needed whilst somehow completing the album alongside wunderkind producer Balazs Altsach. 

With the album now nearing completion, the band gently began gigging again, and then, near the end of 2025 they hit their biggest stage yet as main support to Black Country, New Road at Brixton Academy. A hugely successful night, the band looked at home in a big room and harnessed the feeling as motivation to complete the recording sessions.

And what of the album? It’s full of the earnest brutality and witty self-deprecation of their debut; jam packed with low and high culture references, internet subculture and the hangdog defiance that they have built their name on, but the melodies hit a bit sweeter, the music is a touch more urgent and intense. You might want to whisper it, but there are some ‘pop’ moments on the album. Not in the bubblegum sense, but in the rich lineage of alternative British guitar bands that have hit the sweet spot between idiosyncrasy and accessibility. Next up, Blue Bendy.

Side A

1. Dragonslayer

2. Poke

3. The Curve

4. Small Fortunes

5. Confession Rock

Side B
1. Accidentanyl

2. Vocal Fry Academia

3. Happy Birthday

4. The Tiger Who Came To Tea