Slow Club - Paradise
slow club - paradise
After the release of Slow Club’s first Album, ‘Yeah, So?’ the band were being hailed as the next White Stripes, and as it boasted the catchy 'It Doesn't Have To Be Beautiful’ as its first single and held tracks like the beautiful ‘When I Go’ it’s not hard to see the comparison.
Regrettably the second album, ‘Paradise’, does not live up to the hype. The first album worked because at the time not many people had been doing the same Rockabilly/Americana style that the band did so well. But recently with band like She and Him and Peggy Sue and The Pirates working the same angle the music seems a bit saturated.
What was fresh in 2009 has been done to death by 2011 and unfortunately Paradise is just too similar an album to ‘Yeah So?’ to make any real waves.
Charles Watson (vocals, guitar) and Rebecca Taylor (vocals, guitar, percussion).
One of the things that the band does have going for it is that they use a variety of musical instruments in their live shows and recordings, including things like bottles half full of water, chairs and typewriters, giving the band some fresh and interesting sounds.
It’s a shame that that originality doesn’t translate though to the rest of the album, many songs sound like a poor man version of songs we have heard before. It’s a bit like a chocolate mousse in that it’s sweet and nice, there’s just not very much to it.
It's not that it’s a bad album, the problem is mainly that it has been two years since their first album ‘Yeah, So?’ hit the alternative music scene and the band seems to have made no progress. They are still just a little bit Rockabilly, just a little bit Folk, just a little bit middle of the road.
That being said the album does have some redeeming features, as we will discuss as we go though some of the songs....
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two Cousins
Two Cousins will be a huge single and it will be played everywhere for about three weeks. It is by no means a terrible song, it's listenable and relatively satisfying but it's very similar to many songs being played today.
The appeal of the song lies in its building sound, increasing its soul vocals while the backing music steadily gets more intense. It’s a great song for that and will be played on the radio all the time because of it, and because it’s played on the radio people will think it’s a great song. It’s not. It’s banal and the same as every other song recorded in the last two years. It’s not bad, it’s just boring.
Kick-ass video though.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Never Look Back
This is by far my favourite song on the album, mostly because of Rebecca Taylor’s beautiful voice. The song doesn’t try to be anything more than it is: a slow and gentle song, beautiful and melodic. It sits somewhere between Rockabilly and Soul, but doesn’t try to hard to be either of them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Dog
To be honest I found it hard to pick a third song to talk about, as the songs are all so similar and all equally as dull.
The Dog however is slightly different to the rest of the songs on the album, taking a more indie sounding slant. Reminiscent of bands like the Mystery Jets or Vampire Weekend, it’s still not a great song but at least it shows some desperately needed originality.
The songs not too bad even if is does come off contrived and gimmicky.
Over all the album's not too bad. Not great but not awful. It just comes across timid and boring, but if you are looking for something to just have playing in the background of a dentist waiting area then Paradise is for you
Let me know what you think of the album below and remember if you want to get featured on the site just email a track to unlabeleduk@gmail.com
HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
