Bands generally like to talk the talk when it comes to their creative evolution. It’s an accepted part of the pre-release merry-go-round, like a football manager telling you that the team will be taking things ‘one game at a time’. Slow Club, though, have walked the walk.
‘Complete Surrender’ is the duo’s third record, one that struts in a manner beyond the endearing but restrictive folk-pop of their 2009 debut, ‘Yeah So’. Going soul has been a popular pastime this year and, like Kelis and Joan As Police Woman before them, Rebecca Taylor and Charles Watson are able to inhabit their new material in a manner that precludes the record from being written off as an empty retread.
As the title track has shown across the airwaves for the last month or so, ‘Complete Surrender’ is a confident, ambitious step forward. It is home to the best work of Slow Club’s career by some distance, balancing the whimsy of ‘Paradise’ with added nous and a vocal performance from Taylor that’s pretty much a show stopper.
On Suffering You, Suffering Me she slips between a sophisticated Northern Soul melody and a lung-bursting parting shot, while The Queen’s Nose drops the pace and gives her chance to cut loose over lyrics that recast domestic disappointment as fuel for a Shirley Bassey-style crescendo.
At its quieter moments, ‘Complete Surrender’ is also something of a find. The subtle guitars of Everything New lead in the record’s finest song, with breathy backing for Watson’s delicate lament at the changing face of things.
It’s really something, as is Dependable People And Things That I’m Sure Of, which comes layered with Dusty Springfield-isms and words that are mournful but empowering: “I can go out there, I can be someone else. We all have the power to do this shit to ourselves. But in the quiet times, when nobody can see, I’m letting my thoughts get bigger than me.”
Slow Club are not heavyweights yet, but on this evidence they will be. ‘Complete Surrender’ is the sound of a band in control, able to have fun with their new moves while delivering songs of substance and technical prowess. It’s bloody good.
Slow Club Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Mon July 28 2014 - BIRMINGHAM Temple, Institute
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