The Itch have shared a new single, ‘Drugdealer’ – you can listen to it below.
The song marks the fourth preview of the Luton dance-punk duo’s debut studio album, ‘It’s The Hope That Kills You’, which is out on April 10 via Fiction/I Oh You.
READ MORE: Dance-punks The Itch are creating their own party paradise
Singer Simon Tyrie described the tune as The Itch’s “first traditional love song”, but with a subliminal lyrical twist.
Opening with a shimmering synth line, the ’80s-influenced ‘Drugdealer’ hears Tyrie explore the tension between caring for somebody and sustaining an illusion to maintain their happiness.
“Tell me what you want to hear, and I will say the rest,” he sings in the first verse, backed by a vocoder. “Send me to the corner shop for booze and cigarettes.”
He explained: “I was listening to a lot of Elton John and Bernie Taupin songs at the time of writing and really wanted to write a song that dealt with metaphor like ‘Rocket Man’ or ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’. The idea of a love song from the perspective of a drug dealer hit me when I was buying a pack of cigarettes for a friend at Wide Awake festival.”
The synth textures and lush cinematic strings found on ‘Drugdealer’ were inspired by Ultravox’s classic track ‘Vienna’ and Suicide’s 1979 song ‘Dream Baby Dream’.
Its accompanying, vintage-looking music video was created by Tyrie using a combination of camcorder footage and still photographs from tours and clubnights curated by The Itch.
‘Drugdealer’ follows on from the previous singles ‘Space In The Cab’, ‘Ursula’ and ‘Aux Romanticiser’. The band are set to showcase ‘It’s The Hope That Kills You’ on a UK and European tour this spring. They’ll also make appearances at Green Man and The Great Escape, among other festivals. Find any remaining tickets here.
The duo recently featured in the NME 100 list of essential emerging artists for 2026: “Got no money? The sanity black hole of social media bringing you down? The Itch understand, and they’ve got the solution: insatiable, indie-electronic bangers designed for dancing it out, cutting loose and forgetting your troubles.”
The Itch. CREDIT: The Itch
Speaking to NME last year, Tyrie explained that the aim of The Itch was “to play fun nights that don’t feel like the industry’s got their hands all over them”.
His bandmate Georgia Hardy added: “When you’re outside of the music industry, you think everyone inside it knows what they’re doing and there are rules you have to abide by – you have to play this show and get on that playlist.
“But when you work in it, you know it’s all bullshit and everyone is winging it, so that gave me so much more confidence to be like, ‘The most important thing is the music and the creativity around it.’”
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