Camens: Anything to Win
Camens – “Anything to Win”: A Bold New Chapter for the Stoke-on-Trent Indie Rockers
by Jack Rush
With “Anything to Win,” Stoke-on-Trent four-piece Camens take a confident step beyond the northern indie-rock foundations of their acclaimed debut, Work/Life/Balance. That album reached No. 9 on the UK charts and established the band as one of the more promising names on the British alternative scene. Their new single suggests they have no intention of simply repeating that formula.
“Anything to Win” is swaggering, cinematic alternative indie pop, bringing together the muscular desert-rock influence of Queens of the Stone Age with shades of the Josh Homme-era Arctic Monkeys. The result is bigger, darker and more ambitious than much of the band's earlier work, while retaining the guitar-driven energy that has become central to their identity.
The song also has something to say. Its lyrics confront the less glamorous reality of trying to build a career in the music industry: the compromises, disappointments and setbacks that can make persistence feel like an act of defiance. Rather than dressing those struggles up, Camens turn them into fuel. As frontman and bassist Scott Powell explains, the track is about the ruthlessness of an industry in which you can “pour everything into it and still get overlooked.” The song's central message is consequently less about winning at all costs than refusing to give up.
That attitude runs throughout LOS KARMA, Camens' forthcoming second album, due February 12, 2027 via UNCOMMON SENSE. Written and recorded within a year of Work/Life/Balance, the album reportedly survived a series of obstacles, including lost tour opportunities and funding setbacks. Its final stages were completed during a week in the Spanish mountains with producer Andy Gannon, whose previous credits include work with Courteeners, Justin Hawkins and Kyle Falconer. The sessions also coincided with the major mainland European power outage, adding another unlikely obstacle to the album's already turbulent journey.
Perhaps fittingly, the band's determination to complete the record themselves appears to have become part of its character. “Anything to Win” feels like the sound of a band pushing against its own limitations—more expansive, more cinematic and considerably more self-assured.
With LOS KARMA, Camens appear ready to trade the comfort of their established sound for something more adventurous. If “Anything to Win” is an indication of what's to come, their second album could mark the moment when a promising UK indie band begins to define its own territory.
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