How a cult classic game helped create the sound of Blossoms’ new album

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How old Bully PS2 classic video game inspired the sound of Blossoms' new album

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More specifically, their soundtracks, as in a recent chat with the Blossoms boys, we found out that their upcoming album was at least partly influenced by a beloved PlayStation 2 classic from 2006.

This is just more proof that you really can find inspiration in just about anything.

Yes, even if only in part, an old video game that many of you may have played back in the day is somehow connected to the latest and technically still yet to be announced release.

We’ve heard of groups such as The 1975 trying to make an album that sounds “as if John Hughes had directed a movie about our lives”, and Red Rum Club leaning further into the growing Western aesthetic with almost every outing, but we never thought we’d hear of a record born out of a love for Bully…

The lads actually touched on that whole ‘still TBC’ when we spoke to them at their studio in Stockport, joking not just about divorce but how they’re baffled by the whole ‘are they working on new music?’ speculation in the media. “Well, yeah, we’re a band – that’s what we do for a living”, as they put it.

But back to the point at hand: lead guitarist Dewhurt’s affection for Bully, a cult favourite PS2 title released by Rockstar Games – the same people behind Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and Red Dead Redemption – and the score behind it, essentially served as a seed for the feel of their newest work.

As he explained above, before being expanded on by frontman and primary lyricist Tom Odgen, they were fortunate enough to be in possession of the details for one half of a duo they both admire: Young Gun Silver Fox, a.k.a. British artist Andy Platts and US multi-talented instrumentalist, Shawn Lee.

Lee also just so happens to be the composer of the original Bully video game soundtrack.

Ultimately, this all came about because Josh contacted him over email simply to praise the game’s music (sure, when he was a teenager, we promise), and only took them until the last year or so to put two and two together. Small world, eh?

Oh, the nostalgia.

It has since occurred to us that we’ve come across him before, too.

For us, it was when playing the first Tales From The Borderlands (a spin-off of the popular action role-playing looter-shooter series that has since been turned into a Hollywood movie), which features his song ‘Kiss The Sky’ and ALSO enjoyed in our late teens.

It still continues to baffle us how things can come full circle like this.

As it turns out, his music appears in various pieces of pop culture, and with Tom professing his love for the funky, bass-forward 80s vibes of Lee and his partner Platts’ stuff, he was then roped in as part of the production team on the hypothetical Blossoms LP number six. Not that we know anything about that…

What has now come out of all this is the previously alluded to lead single entitled ‘Joke About Divorce’, the music video for which dropped last month.

We’re still not sure whether or not this is just the first finished song from the project, the opener or indeed even a title track; all we know is it’s another catchy creation from the Stopfordians.

But yeah, in a roundabout way, somehow that ‘problematic’ game that our parents and teachers complained about when we were kids, either by sheer chance, serendipity or perhaps the divine will of the audio gods, appears to have served as a kind of sonic sapling for a fresh era of the local outfit.

Sadly, we have very little else to offer you in terms of information regarding the ‘as yet confirmed’ next studio release from the Blossoms, but we can tell you we’re very much looking forward to hearing what comes next – especially live.

In case you missed it, they’re headlining this year’s edition of NBHD Weekender music festival at the end of the month; you can see the rest of the lineup down below.

More artists added and stage splits confirmed for Neighbourhood Weekender 2026 lineup

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Featured Images — Rockstar Games/Audio North/Press shot (via Go! Entertainment)

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