117. Single Review of A Dozen Red Flags by Misery Prize
Originally Published on April 23rd, 2025
About the Artist
Listening to Misery Prize should come with a warning label. “If you’re ok with how society is, you won’t be.”
Then again, if you’re ok with how society is, you shouldn’t be. I’m not saying the world is all bad, I’m just saying it’s not all good. As people we spend a lot of time focusing on one or the other. When one side gets to heavy, we gravitate towards the other.
I am optimistic, to a fault (probably. Even so, I have a lot of bitterness towards the darker parts of society. As a soldier, I resent war. As a parent and as a husband, I resent my government and the direction they’re taking as it seems to be leaning heavily towards a fascist one. As a musician, I will for some reason always hold a grudge against blink-182 (I know it’s a hot take and I’m probably the only person in the world that does not like this band).
But I am so grateful for life.
If a person is born, they are essentially born a lottery winner in the fertilization process. Our prize isn’t a monetary one. We get (if we are lucky) 70-90 years on the only known planet sustaining life on a solar system that is currently rocketing through space in a galaxy that is a fractional part of an infinite universe. And look what we have done on this small planet. There have been some truly horrible things. But the wonderful things about life always prevail (see? Optimist).
To me, that is what Misery Prize is all about. They are a 3-piece from Yorkshire, in the UK. They are Ryan, Jesse, and Andy. Musically, they’re electronic, progressive, and alternative rock. They debuted in 2023 with the release of the album Saints of Obsene.
Saints of Obsene is a particularly beautiful album to me because there are elements that remind me of prime Radiohead; like Kid A and Amnesiac. I also hear a lot of UNKLE influence as well. Songs like Exquisite Corpse and Last Breath really seem to dissect the “ugly” and discreetly find the beautiful meaning within it. And in Once where the line “time is a luxury we all don’t get,” is uttered at the end of the first verse. It’s as if the darkness within Misery Prize’s debut is simply a facade to bring us in, but in the end they want us to see the light. They want to see it, believe in it, they want the beautiful things to prevail. Maybe we all do.
At the end of 2023, they released a Christmas song called Horseless Broken Sleigh. It is not a typical “Christmas Song,” though. It is very much a Misery Prize Christmas song and it is brilliant in that way.
In January of 2024, they released an EP of covers entitled Thievin' Bastards. The EP features covers like Milkshake and Sexy Back. It is incredible how Misery Pize transform these songs into their own, providing an all new element to the music while incorporating so much of the original’s accents. They make these songs their own as they take control of the atmospheric quality of these songs.
Following the EP, Misery Prize would release 4 singles in 2024 and in January of 2025, they released another single, Rum Fatha, which almost has a 90’s hip hop influence. The eery piano in the almost gives an E. 1999 Eternal vibe, though this is still very much a prog rock song.
About the Song
A Dozen Red Flags is the second single by Misery Prize to be released in 2025. Scheduled to release on April 25th, 2025, it is a progressive rock song that starts with the premise of a bad date but turns into a sinister event. A Dozen Red Flags has a run time of about 4 minutes.
About the Music
The first thing to know about A Dozen Red Flags is that is almost too good. Because it is hard to listen to. The content is a tragically familiar tale and, for some, may even be triggering. As a society, we do more and more every year about educating the public on violence, sexual violence, and domestic violence.
Musically, it opens with drums and a very buzzy bass synth. The verses are spoken word. The story is a cringy one that portrays a date from the woman’s perspective as she observes her date doing things like taking pictures of their food, snapping at the waitress, bragging about social media followers, etc. The chorus is foreshadowing as it almost sounds like the woman recounts moments where she didn’t have to validate this person and, instead could have just gone home.
The last verse is an explosive, emotionally charged climax to the song, as it widens the lens, so to speak, on the topical issues swirling around this incident that can be unnerving; like defending celebrity wife-beaters because they’re “so good in that movie.”
I truly appreciate how Misery Prize have done this as they have managed to not be deliberately graphic in their messaging but have succeeded in getting their message across.
Final Thoughts
Misery Prize are an interesting band because they have the ability to be bleak and hopeful at the same time, without seeming too “preachy.” They identify the good, they identify the bad. They identify it within themselves. Then, they simply say “we can do better,” or “we should be better.”
I really appreciate this approach as the reaction I had was to ponder the message. It wasn’t derivative, it certainly wasn’t boastful or pious. It feels sincere. Their music is very sincere and it is very good.
With Misery Prize, the prize they offer is misery. But the misery isn’t bad. The misery is a chance to feel. A chance to experience. The chance to exist.
You can subscribe to Misery Prize’s YouTube channel where you can see the official music video for A Dozen Red Flags.
A Dozen Red Flags will be streaming across all platforms tomorrow, April 25th.
Make sure you GO PRESS PLAY!
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