It’s never not a pleasure dealing with Sheffield duo Slow Club, pictured, whose intelligent pop returns this summer with the release of a third album, ‘Complete Surrender’, on July 14th. That the pair of Rebecca Taylor and Charles Watson can always be relied upon for good patter is known – so Clash thought it was about time we drafted them in to review the singles for a week.
And here, they have. Listen to the band’s new single, also called ‘Complete Surrender’, below – and then read on for their views on this week’s set of new-release tracks.
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Mariah Carey – ‘You’re Mine (Eternal)’
Rebecca: Despite loving loads of big American vocalists, Mariah has never been one I obsess over. I totally respect what she can do with her voice, but none of her songs have ever really been my faves apart from maybe ‘Always Be My Baby’. This one isn’t particularly amazing. It’s quite subtle until the end, and I’d rather her be going right high all the way through. She’s got some sweet body glitter on in the video, though.
Charles: Mariah Carey has never done it for me, and not surprisingly I’m struggling with this one. That high note at the end is pretty impressive though, and I'm glad to see a come back of the use of brackets (in a song title).
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Haim – ‘If I Could Change Your Mind’
Rebecca: I LOVE THIS BAND. When I saw them live I couldn’t believe how good they were. They’re so good at their instruments and the songs are all such good pop songs. Her voice is so beautiful, too. Mad jealous I don’t have sisters.
Charles: We played a festival with Haim last year and I was totally blown away by them. They can sing and play REALLLY well. This a great tune. I was sad to see that the bass face didn't make the cut for the video.
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Lykke Li – ‘No Rest For The Wicked’
Rebecca: I also love this lass! All of her stuff is just a really clever marriage of production and beautiful melody. This is another gorgeous one. Her vocals, double tracked and harmonising with herself, is such a pleasing sound. The video is awesome too – I love a good filmic story video.
Charles: Lykke Li seems to get better and better. I thought the last record was a huge leap in songwriting and this seems to be going that way, too. Lush production.
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Marmozets – ‘Why Do You Hate Me?’
Charles: I’ll tell you why. Because even though modern science tells us that time travel is impossible, you were able to build some sort of craft that could transport you, your band and your riffs back to 2002, to make an album and bring it back to 2014. Unfortunately, when you travelled in time, you disrupted the space time continuum which in turn lead to a disastrous series of events changing our reality and allowing artists such as Pitbull to rack up six million views on YouTube.
Rebecca: I think I’m maybe officially now too old to manage to like this? I love Paramore loads, but that has melody and emotion. This feels like everything punk shouldn’t be, too – “why do you hate me?” seems like something you shouldn’t care about if you really were a punk. Avril was never bothered if you didn’t like her or not.
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Pitbull – ‘Wild Wild Love’
Charles: See Marmozets.
Rebecca: There’s something awful that is happening in a post-Mumfords universe. Because they became so big and successful, it seems big acts think that if they have a straight kick drum and an acoustic guitar strumming effect it will be a sure-fire hit? I hate when humans think life is this simple. Mumford music spoke to people in a way Pitbull certainly won’t. So he shouldn’t bother. Sorry, Mr. P. Bull. I’m deffo up for champagne and strippers with you, though.
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Calvin Harris – ‘Summer’
Charles: Calvin Harris has got one synth patch. Instead of it having a name like ‘Soft Wave’ or ‘Juicy Juice’, it’s called simply ‘$$$’. Rumour has it that the secret algorithm in the Calvin Harris synth patch makes you want to buy more songs with the Calvin Harris synth patch, that makes you want to buy more songs with the Calvin Harris synth patch… and so on. I don’t mind this tune really. He’s done alright, hasn't he?
Rebecca: I really, really, really fancy Calvin Harris. Looking at the lass in the video he’s singing about, though, I don’t think I've got much of a chance. He’s really clever though, isn’t he? I wonder if in his everyday life, if he is losing an argument or is angry with someone or upset, he presses a big loud synthy chorus Ibiza button and then everything is better again.
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Find Slow Club online here. The band plays London’s Village Underground on May 13th ahead of a summer festival schedule incorporating Hop Farm, Wilderness and Truck.
More singles columns, here.
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