Album released 11/09/2011
"A tour de force" - NME (8/10)
"Start clearing some space at the top of the those Best of 2011 lists" - music OMH (9.5/10)
"an album of exceptional and understated maturity and beauty" - Drowned In Sound (8/10)
"Not only a snapshot of burgeoining adulthood, but also of Slow Club's singularly impressive songwriting ability" - BBC
"a revelation" - The Sunday Times
"Ridiculously spine-tingling" - The Fly (4.5/5)
"a compelling, ambitious musical leap forward" - Music Week
"a meaty, muscular noisy and ambitious beast of an album" - Uncut 4/5
"the duo has evolved from being among the best of an indie pop field.. to carving out a distinct niche for itself" - Pitchfork
Two years on from their critically acclaimed debut, Slow Club release their new album Paradise on September 12th.
Produced by Luke Smith – of sadly departed electro band Clor and producer of Foal's Mercury nominated Total Life Forever – their new album is a far cry from the rattling pop of their debut Yeah So. With its swooning but raucous take on doo-wop and its frazzled, fragile representation of soul inspired rock, Paradise is typical of a band whose members divide their obsessions between Destiny's Child and Noise-pop.
"With the first album we'd probably played those songs about 1000 times before we actually made the record," says Charles Watson, guitarist and one songwriting half of Slow Club, of the band's debut, Yeah, So. "And for this one," says Slow Club's other half, Rebecca Taylor, "we locked ourselves away in this little room in Finsbury Park in north London. And we forced ourselves to write in a very different way."
The songwriting proved to be a cathartic experience - "I think we both wanted to move away from our obsessions on the first album, and look more at our families, and how the loss of someone you love can affect you," says Charles, before adding: "but we do still end up coming back to love and heartbreak, we can't help it."
"So, death and shagging pretty much sum this album up," says Rebecca. "Yeah," agrees Charles sardonically, "cocks, fannies and death. That's our thing."
The band's sophomore album consists of ten songs which capture the duo's idiosyncratic dynamic, at once both upbeat and melancholic, and a perfect balance of masculine and feminine. Even when the melody is gorgeously light, or the riffs are delivered with furious delight, there are still lyrics such as Where I'm Waking's despondently romantic: "I can feel you getting closer..Don't think about when things get older".