Reborn from heartbreak, legal battles, and personal upheaval, hard life’s ‘onion’ is a hard-won triumph that finds Murray Matravers at his most exposed, introspective, and creatively free.

Stream: ‘onion’ – hard life

In retrospect, perhaps the fact that the much-beloved British band easy life got sued by a bloodthirsty multinational corporation, was forced to change their name six years into their career, and eventually rebranded as “hard life,” might tell you something about the resulting music.

And in point of fact, it does: onion, Murray Matravers and co.’s first album under their new moniker, is achingly intimate and brilliantly introspective – born in those quiet, candid, and vulnerable moments of reflection and reckoning where we stop and take stock of who we are, where we’re at, and how the hell we got here.

It’s a thought I’m sure Matravers has asked himself plenty of times over the past few years, and maybe – if we take the onion metaphor a little too literally, but also to its logical conclusion – that explains all the layers, the lyrical peeling back of himself, the beautifully raw and real emotions he expresses unapologetically throughout these incredibly intimate and revealing fourteen tracks. (The record is actually named after onion studio in Shirokane, Tokyo, where much of it was written.)

“This is the album I always wanted to make,” Matravers shared with Atwood Magazine earlier this year. “It’s raw and honest in a way that I’ve never been before. I also think the production and sonics of the album are pushing new boundaries for me – it feels exciting! I’m obsessed with the record – all my friends are sick of hearing it.”

“I made it for me,” he continued. “The music is braver than ever, and I feel like I’ve made something unique; I haven’t been in this space for a very long time, so it feels good to be back in a place where I’m creating purely with the intention of getting something out of my system – it’s freeing.”

“It’s a hard life, I can’t lie, it’s been a rush,” he confesses in opening track “tears.” Cheeky, witty, heartfelt, a wry wink and a warm nod – classic and fresh all at once. And honest: The road to hard life was as turbulent and fraught as one might imagine, with a traumatic breakup with a long-term partner serving as much of Matravers’ lyrical inspiration. “I spent a fortune on psychiatry, if you’re gonna kill me do it quietly,” he sings in “OGRE.”

“The body keeps the score, don’t go asking for support, and even if you dare it’s unavailable,” he reflects in album standout “tele9raph hill,” going on to lament, “Who knew love would make for a hard life” – as brutally self-aware as ever.

I’ve come a long way from weeing in pyjama bottoms
Too shy and bottling up my problems
And that was when I wouldn’t even tell you nothing
And that some baggage that
I’ve had since I was a kid
I did some weird stuff when I was a kid
Teenage years, yeah I became a little shit
Answering back and always giving it the lip
I had so much anger making me physically sick
Oh, but we smile through it
’cause that’s what were taught
The Body Keeps The Score
don’t go asking for support
And even if you dare it’s unavailable
As far as they can tell
this individual’s highly capable
Because I made it happen with a plan
But there’s so many little pieces to a man
And all these other voices
that I’ve silence in the past
I’m asking them to stand up
on the stage and raise their hand
Its time for them to have a voice and take the mic
‘Cause its not easy being the one that people like
It’s harder still to be the one that people love
Who knew love would make for a hard life,
it’s a hard life…

Matravers knows his words cut deep, and he says as much on the cinematic close, “end credits”: “If you think you’ve been listening to my best work, you’ll know when you hear it and each word hurts,” he rap-sings, “…Where’s my just deserves? I was feeling better than I did at my worst, but the last 18 months every line has been blurred…” The track’s chorus is just as sobering, and might be hard to hear for longtime fans (always ravenous for more, we are), but it also reflects hard life’s hard-won maturity:

If this is my end credits,
I think I’m ok with it
I came, I saw,
I conquered, I quit
If this is my end credits,
I think I’m ok with it
If I made some people happy,
that’s the sacred bit

“We, as a band, have been through so much the past couple years – lots of which I can’t go into detail about for legal reasons,” Matravers said in that same interview. “That said, I think as individuals we have all come out of it with a new perspective and a rekindled appreciation for the project. We no longer take anything for granted.”

“Welcome to the new sonic era of hard life. If people find solace in the lyrics then great, or if it’s just the background music for a house party or BBQ, also great.”

The easy life-hard life road was paved in pain, but out of that came a bold, breathtakingly beautiful record –

– and a softer, faithful follow-up to MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE… Honest, heartfelt, and human to its core, onion does quite a lot in a half hour’s time – it’s a raw reset, a quiet triumph, and an emotional purge all at once. Now that Murray Matravers and hard life are back in the saddle and firmly on their feet, there’s no stopping this band from riding full speed into whatever the future holds.

Whether or not onion ends up being a new beginning or a final word, it stands tall on its own as a fearless and formidable body of work.

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:: stream/purchase onion here ::

:: connect with hard life here ::

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Stream: “tears” – hard life

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onion

an album by hard life