congratulations announce debut album "Join Hands" out 13th February 2026 via Bella Union || Share first single and video "This Life" || Autumn UK live dates

congratulations announce their eagerly awaited debut album Join Hands due out 13th February via Bella Union and available to preorder here. The Brighton-based four-piece’s fast-paced debut is more than just ten tracks of unbridled, intensely groovy indie dance rock, but also a call to action, a bright-eyed plea to hang up your worries and let the good times roll. To accompany the announcement congratulations have shared an entertaining video for lead single “This Life”, an infectious ode to first world problems and that feeling of losing at life before you’ve got out of bed. Watch the video HERE.

Known for not revealing the band’s lyrics, vocalist Leah Stanhope offers one interpretation: “‘This Life’ is an ode to being delusional—you know, people who moan about having the worst time but in reality they've got a roof over their heads and food to eat, and ultimately, it’s not that deep.” Guitarist Jamie Chellar adds: “The chorus was inspired by Prince, especially the album Parade. I took such care to make sure the funky guitar had those cutting edges Prince could get, like on “I Wonder U”. The song is about the toll day to day life can have on us, we’re all living in our worlds and trying to do our best, but sometimes that’s not enough.”

Remember fun? congratulations do.... Composed of Jamie Chellar on guitar, Greg Burns on bass, James Gillingham on drums and Leah Stanhope on vocals, the quartet are meticulous in their debauchery, diligently balancing ‘80s pop, ‘00s indie, and a modern-day rock experimentalism into something both deliciously nostalgic and firmly of-the-now. Clad in primary colour uniforms (the sobriquet “punk rock Power Rangers” has been lobbed in their direction on several occasions), and writing songs about delusional millennials, shadowy boogeymen and really good haircuts, congratulations have made a short-yet-dazzling career of never taking themselves too seriously—in fact, they might be the band who take not taking themselves seriously the most seriously ever. 

That’s not to say that congratulations’ music is haphazard or unfocused. On the contrary, it's this devil-may-care attitude that allows them to slather their songs in secret sauce, unencumbered by pretentious ideals or rock star posturing. The band started as a trio when Jamie, James, and Greg met at university and bonded over a shared interest in guitar rock—but it wasn’t until Jamie’s sister introduced the group to her vocalist friend Leah that the project really began to take form. “Leah joining was the missing piece that we needed,” states Jamie.

At the band’s core, each member strives to bring about a spirit of creative freedom, spending hours in the studio not only crafting track after track but trying to find the best way to merge their varying styles and influences into something cohesive. “Jamie's influences are definitely a soul-funk kind of thing,” explains Leah, “whereas I used to be in metal bands so I'm trying to make it as heavy and gritty as possible. James is really into contemporary pop, so he's trying to make everything musically intense and challenging. And then Greg's like a classic Beach Boys surfer dude.”

On a congratulations track, a jaunty, surf-pop guitar lick can race around juicy, chubby synth melodies, like on the bombastic “This Life"; or White Album-era psychedelic strings tango with Leah’s plush vocal harmonies, as they do on “Bubbles”. When it comes to mixing and matching moods and influences, the sky’s the limit, something that congratulations have baked into their songwriting process. “Musicality is very important to us,” says Jamie. “The song is the most important thing. It’s about the joy of crafting it, it's more than just a means to an end to go on tour or get a message across.” Or as Leah interprets them: “Imagine a person with four ropes tied to them. Then we each take a rope and furiously try to pull it in our own direction. The person is the song.”

It’s this constant push and pull that, by the band’s own account, gives them their unique identity. congratulations draw from a deep appreciation of 1980s pop music, citing Prince, Madonna, and Devo as core references, though more to expand upon with their own stitched-together sound, rather than present as a direct homage.

Lyrically, the band tends to write without a subject or theme in mind—the music comes first, and then they apply whatever they’re feeling to the song. Strangely, this doesn’t make for a disconnected listening experience; rather, the songs are like a stream-of-conscious diary, like a peek inside a brain shared by four friends. “I think the whole album, especially the lyrics, is a collage of everything we think and feel,” notes Jamie. 

An essential part of that puzzle is producer Luke Phillips, aka the experimental pop artist and Bella Union labelmate ICEBEING, congratulations’ de facto "fifth member”, according to the band. Their closeness can be felt throughout the record—pulling off something so intricate can only happen with artists who have a deep understanding of what makes each other tick. Album highlight “City Boy” leans wholeheartedly into congratulations’ disco influences, complete with a Donna Summer/Giorgio Moroder-esque breakdown where Leah belts the lyrics “My hair is long/My ass is free”. But more than anything else on the record, it’s maybe “Fought 4 Love” that best encapsulates the essence of congratulations. The track begins with a floor-stomping riff that’s as groovy as it is thunderous, kind of like if ‘00s dance rock band Late of the Pier covered new wave classic “My Sharona”. “It’s an anti-love song,” says Jamie. “The melody came pretty easily, as did the call and response verse. It was really important for us to nail the verse, because in all our favourite songs, any part could be the chorus.” Indeed, the song is insanely catchy, making the most of the band’s virtuoso musicianship to construct the perfect pop masterpiece. “I’ll never forget, I sang one line of the chorus, and Leah immediately chimed in with the next, and I was like, ‘Yes. This is the songwriting partnership I’ve been waiting for my entire life.” 

And therein lies that thing that makes congratulations irresistible. It’s not just the iron-clad pop songwriting, the uplifting vibes or the 1980s flair. It’s the magic that happens when different people with a shared creative vision come together and make something bigger than themselves.

congratulations UK live dates:

15 October – Edinburgh - Sneaky Pete’s

16 October – Leeds - Oporto

17 October - Manchester - Gulliver’s

18 October – Norwich - Wild Paths Festival

6 November – London – The Garage (with The Wytches)

8 November – Brighton - Mutations Festival

Join Hands artwork and tracklist:

1. Nevagonna

2. Fought 4 Love

3. My Hair

4. This Life

5. Dr. Doctor

6. Jonny Hands

7. City Boy

8. I Feel Severe

9. Bubbles

10. Hollywood Swingers