A high school band that emerged as one of 2026’s most anticipated acts, Man/Woman/Chainsaw release their debut album ‘Cannonball’ on 7 August via Fiction Records. Recorded with Seth Evans (Geordie Greep) and Margo Broom (Big Joanie), the record finds the six-piece (Billy Ward, Clio Starwood, Emmie-Mae Avery, Lola Cherry, Billy Doyle and Vera Leppannen) navigating the joys and pitfalls of teenage life and your early 20s with a touch of troubadour-esque storytelling.

Recent single ‘Only Girl’ opens the record with a crash of strings before settling into a more orchestal art-rock sound. The violin continues to come bursting in sporadically over the course of the song, reminding us of the great lost Grammatics, as Clio warns: ‘Keep a hold of your tongue’. ‘Canyons’ opens in late ’90s/early 2000s girl band style – and we say that as the highest compliment – as the words evoke all kinds of emotions: ‘It happens all the time’. Halfway through, things become more intense and experimental, finishing with the kind of flourish that serves Hope of the States so well.

Another recent single, ‘Goddamn, Lizard Man’ finds Billy on lead vocals, embracing his inner Nick Cave with mystical storytelling: ‘He’s a funny guy, he’ll greet you with a kiss’; ‘He’ll suck your blood and hang you out to dry’. Appropriately enough, ‘Lighter’ has a sparser piano-led sound to start and is filled with romantic ideals: ‘You make my whole life light up’. ‘Nose Dive’ finds the band jumping into the art-pop sound of contemporaries Black Country, New Road while the dramatic and atmospheric ‘Get Up and Dance’ opens with lines about brand new shoes on the ceiling.

‘Flick of the Worst’ has more of a baroque pop sound but is a murder ballad in every other sense – ‘I know what you did’ – while ‘The Thing’ is all chunky riffs and fury, leading perfectly into ‘Still Angry’ with its talk of struggling to scrub away teenage guilt and roar of: ‘I swear I’ll never change, I’m still fucking angry’. The closing ‘Something Else to Give’, a song that the band agrees sums up where they are right now, opens in folk-rock style with Vera telling the subject ‘When I go, you’ll be bored’ with pride and power before then deciding ‘Now there’s nothing left, I’ll offer up my body’ before being reassured ‘You don’t know what you’re offering’. It sits somewhere between Spiritualized and Divorce.

With ‘Cannonball’, Man/Woman/Chainsaw have launched themselves on a wave of emotion and math-pop sensibilities.