Leeds based songwriter Sam Griffiths has announced the return of The Howl & The Hum and shared the bands first new material since 2021. The follow up to their acclaimed 2020 debut, the unfortunately named Human Contact’, second album Same Mistake Twice will be released via Miserable Disco on the 6th September with the first single and title track out now.

Across Same Mistake Twice, his second album as The Howl & The Hum, Griffiths confronts the pain and chaos of recent tumultuous years across 12 tracks of his most direct songwriting to date. Surviving the breakup of his band, the global pandemic and reckoning with his future in music, he points the spotlight directly at the anxiety involved in any breakup we experience: how am I perceived? How do people speak about me? How will I be remembered? Am I a good person? 

The answer Griffiths reaches is a complicated ‘No’. 

First single Same Mistake Twice sets the tone, with Griffiths singing in a forlorn baritone of whether we would change our mistakes if given the chance, before drums and strumming melodies erupt into an explosive chorus that sits somewhere between Bruce Springsteen’s saxophone-driven euphoria and the dark introspection of The National. 

Joining forces with songwriters Elanor Moss and Matthew Herd (Seafarers), as well as producer Joseph Futak (Tapir!, Lilo), Griffiths drew inspiration from music by the likes of Big Thief, Phoebe Bridgers and Randy Newman. Same Mistake Twice traverses the raw harshness of Neutral Milk Hotel as much as the unblinking self-reflection of country pioneers like John Prine or Townes Van Zandt. Throughout, Griffiths’ voice is acrobatic and powerfully emotive, even while singing about the most vulnerable of topics. Effortlessly veering between gravelly introspection to soaring falsetto, it is a unifying counterpoint to his themes of anxiety and dread.

 Encompassing the free musical range of the open mic nights Griffiths started out in, while turning his lived experience inwards to address the pain that comes through personal growth, it is a full-circle progression. “The lyrics are almost too direct, which is what I wanted,” he laughs. “It’s finding the beauty in the pain and looking for forgiveness through it all.”   

In being honest – in holding nothing back – Griffiths finds solace in the imperfections that make us all human. Sometimes, we have to make the same mistake twice.

Same Mistake Twice is set for release September 6th 2024.