Leisure Society's first album was a true gem, and one of the best albums of its year. I played it every morning for weeks. Their second may turn out to be even better...fresh, bright and uplifting - and hookier than a fisherman's satchel – Brian Eno

The Leisure Society have, without doubt an intriguing back-story which at various points involved forming band’s with Paddy Considine & Shane Meadows in Burton upon Trent, writing scores for Meadows’s films Room For Romeo Brass and Dead Man’s Shoes and the usual tales of dead-end jobs and struggle.

Having met some years previously in Burton Nick Hemming & Christian Hardy began sharing a flat  in London in 2005 which  was to be the spark that eventually saw them write and record The Leisure Society’s debut record, The Sleeper, an album that was released in 2009 on Willkommen Records and spurned an Ivor Novello nomination for Nick, who at the time was still unpublished and working in a warehouse.

The album was to be re-released on Full Time Hobby later in the year, by which time it had become a bona-fide slow-burn success story. Richard Thompson invited the band to play at his Meltdown Festival (“He gave us a weird, cosmic pep talk about the nature of relativity and our time on earth before we went on stage,” says Christian. “We drifted on stage wondering whether we existed or not,”). There was another Ivor Novello nomination. They packed a tent at Glastonbury. Even Brian Eno declared himself a fan. “We went to his Christmas party, which was quite an experience,” says Christian. “As I watched my girlfriend doing the conga with Brian Eno, I thought, life’s gone in a strange direction.”

By the time they came to record their second album, Nick and Christian were able to come out of the bedroom studio and record with members of the crack live band fleshing out their sound to something fuller and richer. That’s Bas Hankins (drums), Helen Whitaker (flute), Darren Bonehill (bass), Mike Sidell (violin), William Calderbank (Cello) and newcomer Amy May on Viola – now very much part of The Leisure Society.

The …Murky Water sessions began in earnest in May 2010 at a mock Tudor mansion in Kent, where the rhythm parts were thrashed over the course of five days with just the neighbourhood bats for company. “We wanted to do a bit of a Led Zep, set all our kit up there and wig out,” says Christian. “It was quite nice to rock out in a country space, because the silence is quite noisy.” Nick had spent the six months previous on an inspirational tour of coastal Britain during which the rough outline of the album had been written.

After two weeks going wild in the country, they spent the rest of the year working at Trinity Music College and Nick’s apartment in Greenwich, crafting an album that’s got a surprise around every corner. “We’ve agonised over every squeak, every noise, to a point of lunacy,” says Christian.

The strange, new world Nick and Christian find themselves in is reflected by the album’s title, which came to Nick while reading Albert Camus’s The Fall. “I always felt Nick was watching from the sidelines in some way,” says Christian. “On this album, he’s immersed himself in all the things he was looking at. It’s more colourful and vibrant, and it’s full of happiness and terror. He’s the guy poised to dive on the cover. He’s heading into the murky water.”

The tracklisting of the album is as follows:

1.  Into The Murky Water
2.  Dust On The Dancefloor
3.  Our Hearts Burn Like Damp Matches
4.  You Could Keep Me Talking
5.  Although We All Are Lost
6.  This Phantom Life
7.  The Hungry Years
8.  I Shall Forever Remain An Amateur
9.  Better Written Off (Than Written Down)
10. Just Like The Knife