Slow Club
Complete Surrender
Reviewed by: Ari Roth
In the three years since their last album, 2011’s Paradise, Slow Club have matured and refined as a band, broadening and focusing their sound while retaining the finely-tuned, melodic songwriting that has always been at the core of their work. Complete Surrender ramps up the drama without over-cluttering, and the result is powerful and utterly assured, the sound of two musicians who know exactly what they’re doing. Paradise’s opener “Two Cousins” remains the high point of the band’s career, a stunning gem of a pop song that has lost none of its power in the ensuing years, but taken as a whole, Complete Surrender is arguably the band’s best album.
Both Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor sing, sharing duties, trading off leads and harmonizing with clarity and force. Watson’s voice is controlled and smooth, while Taylor’s pipes have matured enormously since Paradise, with a style that feels freshly indebted to classic R&B and soul, and songs to match. The swaying pulse and pleading crescendos of songs like “The Queen’s Nose” and the brassy horns and Motown and Stax-like stomp of “Suffering You, Suffering Me” are certainly open with their influences, but they tap into an eternal emotional current that elevates them beyond pastiche.
“Everything Is New” meanwhile, is pure Slow Club, a towering song with wordless, cascading backing vocals, pin-drop dynamic shifts and a contrast between Watson’s restrained tenor and Taylor’s strained, wrenching, reverbed performance. First single “Complete Surrender” is another highlight, a propulsive, tightly wound song with strings that heighten the dramatic force and a chorus that sneaks its way into your brain and stays there. As with each of their previous two albums, Complete Surrender ends with an extended track to draw the album together. This time around, that role is filled by “Wanderer Wandering” a synthy, Watson-led anthem that fades out and then reemerges with spare organ chords and Taylor at the helm for a final, stirring coda. Slow Club have taken their time at every step of their career, and on Complete Surrender, that care and attention has resulted in an excellent album, one that is unquestionably worth the wait.
Rating: 
