Slow Club – One Day All Of This Won't Matter Anymore

Album Review by Katie Hawthorne | 29 Jul 2016
Album title: One Day All Of This Won't Matter Anymore
Artist: Slow Club
Label: Moshi Moshi
Release date: 19 Aug

Depending on how your glass is filled, a title like One Day All Of This Won't Matter Anymore could promise some pretty gloomy prospects – but Slow Club strike for a tentative, silver-lined optimism on their fourth LP. 

Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor remain a two-piece, but see their sound swell in size with huge arrangements abetted by the Spacebomb Studio house band, and covered in gloss by producer Matthew E White. This roomier fit suits them, too; Slow Club are right at home cushioned by glamorous, morose choral vocals and expansive soundscapes.

ODAOTWMA will do little to challenge the Sheffield band's twee reputation, but the record crosses genres with far greater experimentation than they're known for. Weatherworn balladry and backdated apologies on Where The Lights Get Lost and authoritative, retro mimicry on Give Me Some Peace show the band reaching for bolder expressions, and mid-record track Tattoo punches hard on a wistful retrospection trapped in picture-perfect past tense. The breathy melodrama starts to wear out, though, and tracks like Come On Poet feel a bit thin... unless you're an optimist too, perhaps.  

Playing Glasgow's Òran Mór on 27 Oct http://www.slowclubband.com