Slow Club Paradise (2CD) (Limited Edition)

 “a compelling, ambitious musical leap forward for the duo” MUSIC WEEK

“as Charles and Rebecca yell "hold on to where you're from" you can practically hear the echoing hordes scream it back” NME

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”.

Paradise bears the touch of a songwriting unit who share and divide. Songs begin and end with Rebecca and Charles swapping verses, even when the song itself is deeply personal to one of them. On Never Look Back, which bubbles into existence with cooing two-part harmony, Charles delivers the startling lines: “Baby brother in the next room, trying to bring him back to life”. It sees the 23 year-old singer recalling a dream in which an imaginary brother lays dying in the next room. On forthcoming single Two Cousins, Rebecca imagines that life is simply a journey which ends in our return to childhood when we die. “Hold on to where you’re from, it’s where you heart goes when you’re done”. Gold Mountain drifts languidly, like the lonely walk home after a drunken night out. It is, in fact, yet another song in which the bittersweet melody belies the arresting theme at the heart of the lyrics- “They have found, when life is pouring out, you are the only one that counts-“ Earth and Ash is about Rebecca’s closeness to her granddad, and her underlying fear about what will happen when he dies. “I've not played him the song, he wouldn't get it,” says Rebecca, “He always says (adopting a gruff Sheffield accent): 'why can't you play one of them Eva Cassidy songs? Or something by Joni Mitchell?'”, so I can't imagine a song about him dying is the introduction to Slow Club he really needs.”

Slow Club’s currency is songwriting which sees romance in the unlikeliest of corners, and Paradise applies a lighter, more honed lyrical touch to telling their story. More than anything, Paradise is a platform for Slow Club’s mordant Englishness at its best, displaying a restraint and self-deprecating wit even in the darkest of sentiments.

Tracklist:

1. Two Cousins 2. If We’re Still Alive 3. Never Look Back 4. Where I’m Waking 5. Hackney Marsh 6. Beginners7. You, Earth Or Ash 8. Gold Mountain 9. The Dog 10. Horses Jumping

Bonus disc with Ltd version:

1. Half Drunk 2. Palms 3. Two Cousins (Acoustic) 4. Never Look Back (Acoustic) 5. Two Cousins (Malcolm Middleton & Aidan Moffat 1999 Version)