The Itch share their new single, ‘No More Sprechgesang’, taken from their debut album, It’s The Hope That Kills You, out today via Fiction/I OH YOU.
A crowd favourite, ‘No More Sprechgesang’ is one of the first tracks that The Itch made together and has long been a cornerstone of the duo’s live show.
Frontman Simon Tyrie says, “I wrote the words ‘no more sprechgesang’ a few years ago in a notebook at a really bad gig, being deadly serious, along with a long list of other things I wanted to see the back of. But when I rediscovered the line in my notebook I just found it really funny and stupid. Now when I sing ‘no more sprechgesang’ it feels less like a call to arms and more like a melancholic ode to the scene we once belonged to, which at the time of writing I wanted to burn down. Journalists and musos alike love it because it makes them feel seen and everyone else likes it because it’s stupid and fun and has a lot of cowbell. Everyone’s a winner.”
Listen to ‘No More Sprechgesang’ on the Premier League playlist.
Over the course of a debut album which finds harmony in juxtaposition, Simon & Georgia pool a hundred different touchstones to create something entirely singular. It’s The Hope That Kills You is crisp yet dishevelled. Introspective yet exuberant. And delivered with candid conviction while wry sarcasm consistently looms moments away.
Since first arriving in 2024 with a single headline performance, The Itch re-emerged in the summer of 2025 – now armed with a record deal and embryonic versions of the tracks which would go on to become It’s The Hope That Kills You – Simon & Georgia played a sweaty midnight set at The Great Escape which saw an hour-long queue jostling for entry and has since gained cult-like status in its own right.
The duo have since made a habit of selling tickets to their underground basement parties via SMS, with their most recent sellout show – a headline and album announce party – in the iconic basement of Swiss restaurant St Moritz in Soho. The venue, which has seen everyone from Lou Reed to Metallica pass through its doors, has been under the same ownership since 1961 and still has the 1960s Soho licence that allows it to stay open every night until 3am. It’s no surprise then that The Itch wanted to bring it back as a party spot.
