Pigeon Slap Musics albums of the year. #5 Slow Club- Complete Surrender There are some artists from whom you know exactly what youre going to get- and that can often be a good thing. For example this coming month sees the release of the new Belle and Sebastian record and although there might be a few more synthesisers here and there, you more or less know what youre signing up for. There are other bands who show a constant evolution in their sound that makes each album an entirely different experience. Slow Club dont reinvent the wheel with each record they release but they certainly change vehicle. While 2009s Yeah, So is best described like a vespa, whimsically buzzing around Rome in a sepia tone with Audrey Hepburn in tow, Complete Surrender is a swaggering 50s Cadillac being driven with the roof down while wearing leather jackets being so ruddy cool. This isnt to say that the album cant be sweet and quiet- Paraguay And Panama and Dependable People And Things That Im Sure Of are heart-wrenchingly intimate- but its when the album lets rip that you get the full force of what its about. Rebecca Taylor really takes centre stage for most of the album with a highlight being her impassioned delivery on Suffering You, Suffering Me where she channels her inner Aretha Franklin. There are moments where this record possesses all the bombast of classic Motown- perhaps my only gripe is that there isnt more of this- with swooning strings and stinging brass that sounds wholly unique in 2014s largely fuzzy and distorted psych soundscape. There were hints of this in Slow Clubs sophomore album, 2011s Paradise, but it is Complete Surrender that shows this Sheffield duo to be the closest thing that we have to a modern day act who are relevant and thoroughly in love with the oft-forgotten Northern Soul movement. Measured and mature songwriting, and at moments stunning vocals from Taylor show that this album has just the right amount of brass- in all senses of the word. That this record was overlooked for the mercury list is a crying shame but it seems for all Watson and Taylor care they might as well be crying tears of joy because this is a bloody great album.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 23:56:35 +0000
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