EP Review: Hard-Fi - 'Don't Go Making Plans'
Hard-Fi return as reliable as ever with new EP ‘Don’t Go Making Plans’ to accompany their latest tour.
The Staines massive last released a new song, ‘Move Over’, on a hits compilation in 2014. Then they went on hiatus, which ended with their live return in 2022. Frontman Richard Archer never stopped writing in the break, and ten years after their last new song, the EP’s title track was launched in May, ahead of this four-track release, plus two extra remixes.
‘Don’t Go Making Plans’ opens the EP, full of their infectious and immediate style. Written in response to the government’s crackdown on popular protests, it maintains their typical lyrical depth, as Richard sings: “Don’t go rising up, or you’ll be found in the back of a van.” Also wrapped up in the poppy beat over a catchy guitar riff is an assessment of what has changed since their start two decades ago – now young people are “too broke to eat and nowhere to dance”.
Hard-Fi – Richard, guitarist Ross Phillips, bassist Kai Stephens and drummer Steve Kemp – recorded at the band’s own studio in Staines, with long-term collaborator Wolsey White helping to produce alongside the frontman.
Second song ‘I Know What You Want’ is similarly defiant. The loud repetition of the “punch in, punch out, punch in, punch out” line echoes the working-class statements that propelled the four-piece to the top of the charts in the mid-00s. The brash urgency means it fits alongside their former glories: “I know, I know what you want, I know, I know what you need, I know, I know how you feel.”
Released a few days before the EP release, ‘Don’t Need You’ is another taste of Hard-Fi’s trademark groove – part punk band, part dance celebration. There’s grit and determination in lines like “I don’t need suffering again and again”, and the resigned acceptance in the chorus: “I need some money but I don’t need you. I need some new clothes but I don’t need you.” All of this is delivered over Steve’s strong drumbeat which makes you want to punch the air.
‘Always and Forever’ is a wistful love song inspired by those romantic stories from Britain’s small towns. It’s a little softer, a rose-tinted reflection on life, over the top of a bright riff. “And all this time, all this wasted time, it’s a heartbreak”, Richard sings in a particularly poignant first verse. It may be about battling the feeling of running out of time, but it feels right.
Remixes have been at the heart of Hard-Fi’s operation since the start, with Axwell’s ‘Hard to Beat’ and Tiesto’s rework of ‘Fire in the House’ among countless others. That trend is continued here, with two additional remixes of ‘Don’t Go Making Plans’. The Reflex Revision adds a sharp twist on the title track. primed for dance floors, with the high intensity retained, rising and dipping before rising again for a rousing conclusion.
Wrongtom reworked two first album tracks as well as 2007’s ‘Suburban Knights’. The version of the new song slows the groove down with a disco dub, closely aligned to their ska influences, focusing on the instrumentation, with occasional snatches of Richard’s lead vocal.
Their two-week tour encompasses a slew of dates across Great Britain, and the new material is designed with the stage in mind, to run alongside the plethora of hits from ‘Stars of CCTV’ onward. If you’re here from the first time, don’t worry: you’re in capable hands.
But Hard-Fi have always been accessible, and even without knowing their hallowed history, you quickly get a sense of their operation. The gang have always been capable of making art out of the everyday, representing life as we lived it in 2005, and now again with 2025 breathing down our necks. Hard-Fi always respected the past, but their moment has always been in the now. This new communication sparkles just like their old ones.
Words by Samuel Draper
