Giant Killers and the Cost of 30 Lost Years: The Boy Who Went Delulu and Other Stories
A Brighton Label, Rights Won Back From MCA and Four Songs About Love’s Delusions
In 1995, MCA Records signed Giant Killers, released two singles and never put out the album. Jamie Wortley and Michael Brown then spent three decades getting their songs back. On 29 August 2025, Giant Killers released The Boy Who Went Delulu and Other Stories through the small Brighton label Little Genius Recordings. The EP holds four previously unreleased tracks that point at the next chapter rather than the last one.
Giant Killers’ The Boy Who Went Delulu sits in the playlist below with our power pop and melodic rock picks, and the Giant Killers artist profile collects their wider coverage. The EP reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Press play on the title track first, then keep reading for the 30 years behind it.
Giant Killers Open The Boy Who Went Delulu at 137 BPM With a Chorus That Lifts the Verse
The title track sets the terms quickly. Measured from its Bandcamp stream, it runs at about 137 beats per minute and lasts just under three minutes. That tempo and length sit squarely in 1990s indie territory. The Big Takeover heard rock energy, indie cool and power-pop accessibility in it. It also noted how the chorus lifts the song out of the verse. That lift is the hook, and it arrives on schedule. Louder Than War, meanwhile, singled out Wortley’s mellow vocal over a lilting backing.
The band behind it is a songwriting duo. Wortley plays guitar and keys and sings lead, while Brown plays bass, keys and brass and sings. Their history reads like a list of rooms they have already played. They opened for Blur on the Country House tour and toured with Nick Heyward and with Squeeze. They also played Glastonbury and appeared on Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast. None of that stopped the MCA album from sitting unreleased for almost 30 years.
When the rights finally came back, Little Genius Recordings released the debut, Songs for the Small Places, on 26 January 2024. The comeback year that followed included two appearances on Patrick Kielty’s BBC Radio 5 Live show. In November 2024 they opened the main stage at Shiiine On, on a bill with Echo & the Bunnymen and The Lightning Seeds. The band were also the subject of episode 237 of The James McMahon Music Podcast in February 2024. At least £2 from every sale on their Bandcamp page goes to the suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably.
Delulu Means Romantic Delusion, and Giant Killers Hide an Obsessive Lyric Inside a Bright Tune
The title is internet slang. In the band’s own notes, delulu is a variation on delusion. It describes someone holding unrealistic romantic fantasies about another person, fantasies that risk tipping into obsessive, compulsive behaviour. The EP looks at that underbelly of love through a pop lens, perhaps, the band suggest, to disarm a difficult subject.
The lyric does exactly that. Louder Than War quoted the verse in which the narrator writes letter after unanswered letter. The narrator also waits around the other person’s garden and hides when they come outside. The review then reached for The Police and Every Breath You Take, and for Blondie and One Way or Another. Both sound friendly on the radio until you listen to what they are saying. The Boy Who Went Delulu uses the same trick, and it lands.
Standing On A Ledge Again and Soho Story stay in that territory. The Big Takeover heard hushed vocals and cascading guitars on the first, and bubbling beats and shimmering guitar on the second. Similarly, York Calling described the set as indie pop with nods to 1990s Britpop and modern elements. It also framed the four tracks as a look ahead to the band’s second album.
Four Tracks, a Guest Singer From Their MCA Years and a Bridge to the Second Album
The structure is simple and deliberate. The title track runs 2:58 and Standing On A Ledge Again 3:37. Soho Story, at 5:19, is the longest and most understated of the four. Then Hope Our Love Lives closes the set in 3:12 with a celebratory turn and a different voice.
That voice belongs to Gibbo, known to his mum as Andy Gibson. He was signed to Sony in the 1990s, and Giant Killers co-wrote with him in those years. Louder Than War’s Robin Boardman compared his singing to Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook, which suits a band whose members toured with Squeeze. The band also describe the song as a preview of a wider catalogue from that period. Those rights, too, have returned to the original writers, and the songs are due out on Little Genius Recordings in time.
The four tracks were taken from the band’s second album, which they announced for November 2025. The EP, in other words, is not a victory lap. It is a band that spent 30 years without its songs choosing to spend its second chance on ones nobody had heard.
For Listeners Who Follow Squeeze and The Lightning Seeds
The comparisons come from the band’s own history. Squeeze built a career on sharp pop songs with a sting in the lyric, and Giant Killers have toured with them. The Lightning Seeds made the bright, guitar-led Britpop that The Big Takeover heard on Standing On A Ledge Again. The two bands also shared the Shiiine On bill. Listeners who know either will recognise the craft.
From the BestRock.News Curator Team: “The Boy Who Went Delulu and Other Stories spends 15 minutes on the dark side of love and still sounds like a band having the time of its life. After 30 years waiting for their own songs, Giant Killers could have looked back. They chose four unheard ones instead.”
Where to Hear Giant Killers and The Boy Who Went Delulu
Stream Giant Killers on Spotify and Apple Music, and buy the EP on Bandcamp. The earlier When This Time Is Over EP is on Bandcamp too. Watch the band on their YouTube channel and follow the story on Facebook. The label, Little Genius Music, posts on Instagram, and its Giant Killers page has the full history.
About The Author
