Sometimes you hear a track that makes you pause. It’s the lyricism, the atmosphere or the presence. In Antony Szmierek’s case, it’s all three: the fly-on-the-wall, street-lamp-lit aesthetic of his incredibly hopeful breakthrough “Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Fallacy” is smooth and clear. Choice lyric: “Post-post-punk. No nuance in the news. Top Ten Things You Might Have Missed – 100,000 views.” 

Released in March, the club-ready roller coasted into view with absurdist everyday-isms, flashing-light feelings and late-night philosophies, all told atop a looping piano that seemed to be coasting off day-after euphoria. In essence: it’s extremely British and – alongside single “Working Classic” and upcomer “Rock & A Calm Place” – presents one of the next great British songwriters.  

“A lot of lyrics on there are stream of consciousness,” says Szmierek of the tongue-roller verses on “Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Fallacy”. “‘Do you think this counts as one of my five a day?’ – That was a line about magic mushrooms that I heard inside a taxi.”