On 17 September 2007, Reverend and The Makers released their debut album The State of Things. Nineteen years later, it remains the record that introduced the wider UK to Jon McClure’s mix of indie rock, electronics and sharp observations of everyday life.
The album arrived on Wall of Sound and reached No.5 on the UK Albums Chart. Its best-known single, Heavyweight Champion of the World, had already put the Sheffield band firmly on the map earlier that year.
Sheffield in the songs
The State of Things came from the same mid-2000s Sheffield ecosystem that produced Arctic Monkeys, but it never sounded like a simple copy of what was happening around it. The record mixed guitars with electronic textures while McClure wrote about ordinary lives, relationships, nights out and the frustrations sitting underneath them.
That connection was literal as well as geographical: Alex Turner contributed to the album, while the wider Sheffield scene ran through the record’s story.
Nineteen years later
The anniversary lands during another active period for Reverend and The Makers rather than as a memorial to a finished band. Earlier in 2026 they returned with Is This How Happiness Feels?, giving the group a new record to place alongside the album that started it all.
That makes revisiting The State of Things more interesting. It is possible to hear where the band began while knowing that the story continued far beyond 2007.
Release date verified as 17 September 2007.
