Stoke-on-Trent’s Camens have never been ones to play it safe, and their latest single “Anything to Win” makes that clearer than ever. Released as the lead track from their forthcoming album Los Karma (due February 2027), the song arrives as a bold statement of intent from a band that has spent the best part of a decade carving out a space in the UK indie-rock landscape through sheer graft, sharp songwriting and an unshakeable sense of identity.
Formed in 2017, the four-piece of Scott Powell on bass and lead vocals, Luke Brightmore on drums, James Corbishley on lead guitar and Josh Egan on rhythm, built their reputation the old-fashioned way: freezing practice rooms, relentless touring and a string of anthemic singles that earned them plays on BBC Radio 6 Music and support slots with the likes of Scouting for Girls. Their 2024 debut album Work/Life/Balance charted respectably and confirmed what early supporters already knew: Camens specialise in real, raw, relatable alternative indie, drawing on Interpol’s atmosphere, Vampire Weekend’s melodic inventiveness, Weezer’s hooks and a distinctly English storytelling tradition that nods to The Beatles and The Kinks. “Anything to Win” feels like a natural evolution and a slight sharpening of that formula.
The desert-tinged aesthetic surrounding the release hints at a broader conceptual world for Los Karma, while the title itself suggests themes of ambition, desperation and the lengths people will go to when the prize is on the line. True to form, the band lean into their strengths: driving rhythms, layered guitars that balance grit with polish, and Powell’s distinctive vocal delivery - part northern realism, part urgent storytelling - riding confidently over the top. Where earlier material often explored the frustrations of everyday existence and relationships with a bittersweet edge, this track carries a more confrontational energy. It feels designed for both headphone intensity and the sticky floors of a packed club, the kind of song that builds towards a chorus made for collective shouting.
The production keeps the band’s signature live-wire feel intact while allowing space for the melodic sophistication they’ve steadily refined. There is still that undercurrent of honesty and lived experience that has always set Camens apart from more polished peers; nothing here sounds manufactured or calculated purely for playlists. As the first proper look at the Los Karma chapter, “Anything to Win” succeeds because it doesn’t reinvent the wheel so much as put a new set of tyres on it and floor the accelerator. It reaffirms Camens as a band with clear vision and the songcraft to back it up.
For long time fans it will feel like a welcome return with extra bite; for newcomers it serves as an excellent entry point into a group that continues to punch above its weight. If this is the opening gambit, the full album cannot come soon enough. Camens are not just in it: they are prepared to do whatever it takes.
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