Slow Club - Yeah So

Fri 31st Jul, 2009 in Music Reviews

Anyone who has seen the latest Vodafone ‘Make the most of now’ ads – which inspires people to live out their ‘one day’ ambitions, much like the kids diving into a wishing fountain full of coins or the guy driving a car made from a bed down the road – will probably already be familiar with the work of Slow Club. Their harmony-rich and vocally driven Lets Fall Back in Love is the musical backbone of the TV campaign.

But the band themselves have yet to fully make their mark in the Australian music consciousness. Hailing from Sheffield, England, Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor came together following the demise of Bloc Party-esque The Lonely Hearts in 2005. The duo have released only a handful of singles, EPs and 7-inches in their short career.

Two-piece bands seem to be the trend these days, and the obvious comparisons (The White Stripes and The Kills) come to mind; but sonically, Slow Club are remarkably different. Quite unlike their more riff-heavy Sheffield predecessors, Watson and Taylor’s approach is much more simplistic and unconventional. Yeah So is a collection of cute, mostly acoustic-based tracks which are as catchy as they are uncomplicated. Slow Club have adopted a winning formula, which incorporates the best of several genres: acoustic-folk, twee pop, alt-country and cheerful indie pop.

Their music is rich with guy-girl harmonies, summery chord progressions and charmingly quirky – and at times heartbreaking – lyricism. Opening track When I Go is a simple, honest tale of unrequited love (“If we’re both not married by 24, will you pass me those knee pads and I’ll get on the floor”), not unlike the more stripped- back I Was Unconscious, It Was A Dream or the melancholy piano ballad, There’s No Good Way To Say I’m Leaving You.

Yeah So has its fair share of upbeat moments too, and the results are infectious as heck: like the energetic, jovial ode to singledom Giving Up On Love; the thumping country-tinged hoe-down It Doesn’t Have to be Beautiful; or album closer Our Most Brilliant Friends. The Australasian release comes with a bonus disc that includes, alongside a couple of live recordings, some of the band’s previous releases, including the wonderfully wistful Fleet Foxes-esque Wild Blue Milk.

Despite their at-times unconventional ways (they have been known to incorporate unexpected percussive instruments in the form of cutlery, wooden chairs and glass bottles) Slow Club aren’t trying to break the mould or set themselves apart. Their aim seems to be to produce music that makes you dance, makes you sing, and inspires happiness. On all those counts they’ve succeeded quite nicely.

Yeah, So is out now on Popfrenzy Records.