Album Review: Slow Club - Complete Surrender

By now Sheffield’s Slow Club have nailed the art of pop music.

After two albums that have seen them build their craft with steady hearts and minds, Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor are almost having a laugh, with songs that soar effortlessly through billowy clouds of warm chord patterns, bright yet soft brass accompaniments, harmonies and choruses that are screaming for synchronised street dancing and spontaneous jazz hands. It’s easily their best songwriting to date.

There’s a feeling of breezy momentum as they glide through the first few tracks, covering most pop tropes in just several minutes. They keep going though, and after a sweet half-way dip with Number One (a gorgeous piano ballad) they jump into some sublime neo-soul slow-dancin’ with The Queen’s Nose. It’s all low lights and leaning in close until it breaks open in a huge finale of horns and singing to the back row – stirring stuff.

Taylor’s voice has star quality, but there are small imperfections and inconsistencies that pop up every now and then that make it so much more memorable than bland carbon copies on higher rungs of fame. Her harmonies with Watson’s breathy warble have never been better.

Despite all the talent on display and with their versatility clearly not an issue, there’s no real direction, the tracks all floating in their own bright bubbles. It’s perhaps not too troubling for folks now used to music enjoyed piecemeal, but it lends a weightless quality that doesn’t do them justice.