Back on the 29th of June, The Ultra Violets released their latest single ‘Sex’ and it’s a earworm of a track fuelled by one damning story of embarrassment in an intimate scenario.
The band from Cornwall brought this song about after a friend of guitarist Marc Willoughby seemingly made the mistake of telling him about one troublesome evening. Befittingly following previous single ‘Romance’, this Ultra Violets song presents a repetitive titular chanting on top of an upbeat mangle of guitar and striking rhythm section.
Lead singer and guitarist Perran Nicholls tells the song’s story best and almost does our job for us:
“’Sex’ came about after Marc (the guitarist) was telling me this unfortunate story about his friend, the next day I picked up the guitar and the story was still fresh in my mind, I had the melody first, so I kept singing the main hook SEX SEX SEX over and over, then I remembered every single detail Marc had told me the previous night, so I started pencilling it in to fit the melody.”
The gist of the evening’s antics?
“Girl meets boy.... the poor lad had invested heavily in this girl, he was really into her, she was into him, so a few dates later they are on a night out, it’s going well, things are getting hot, end of the night comes, they go back to her house, there’s only one thing on the cards after hours of lust building, she says to him let’s have (SEX SEX SEX) the inevitable happened... or shall I say didn’t happen, the pressure of it all, she was really intense in the bedroom department you see.
The poor lad could not handle it, it left him.. well complexed, the pure intensity from this encounter, meant he... you guessed it.. he could not get it up, and boy oh boy it left her vexed, she could not understand his situation and she broke things off soon after. Savage.”
The message?
“The line “and I know no one talks about it, so I’m gonna sing about, yeah I’m gonna sing about it” is about that no one ever talks about erectile dysfunction. So this song is for all the guys who find it all a bit too much sometimes, we stand with you... we’ve all been there!”
Clearly, Ultra Violets are a band that can produce work around sensitive subjects whilst not taking themselves too seriously. Following formation in 2020, debut single ‘Romance’ brought a wave of acclaim – including radio play on Radio X and Amazing Radio. ‘Sex’ has the hallmarks to do the same.