Bolton’s own teenage fire-starters Florentenes have just dropped their new single ‘The News’, a jagged, high-voltage track that’s equal parts cynicism, affection and adrenaline. It’s the first release from their upcoming final EP before the band shifts into debut album mode, and if this is the tone they’re setting, 2026 could be theirs for the taking.
Fresh off their PUNCHBAG UNI: The University Tour, a 15-date Live Nation-backed run that’s re-igniting guitar music on UK campuses, the band are quickly becoming one of the most talked-about new acts in British alt-rock. With a sold-out northern run, support slots with names like Razorlight, The Royston Club, Jamie Webster, and Sundara Karma, and a sound that feels at once familiar and fired-up, Florentenes are carving a lane that’s all their own.
New single ‘The News’ leans into that tension. It’s self-aware, shape-shifting and full of bite, moving from dark, gritty riffs into bursts of warmth and clarity before landing in a cathartic lyrical release. Frontman William Smith explains:
“It’s me flipping through all the noise, headlines, opinions, expectations… and trying to find a bit of truth in it. It’s cynical and affectionate at the same time. It ends with this realisation that I don’t need to compete with anyone — I just need to make something that feels true to me.”
Produced by Dave Eringa (The Who, Manic Street Preachers), ‘The News’ is raw, fast, and loud in all the right ways, the kind of track that feels like it was recorded in one take and meant to be heard in a packed-out venue.
Florentenes have been compared to early Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines, and you can hear the lineage, but they’re not just chasing the past. Their sound is laced with urgency, tension, and that strange mix of fragility and fight that defines being young in 2025.
As Eringa puts it:
“This is the band the UK music industry has been waiting for — insanely talented, insanely young, and cool as. No clicks, no autotune, no nonsense. Just massive songs.”
With their debut album on the horizon and a packed live calendar through December, including slots with The Wombats, The Rolling People, and Shambolics, Florentenes are doing it the right way: one room, one riff, one chant-along chorus at a time.
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