VIDEO: Slow Club - "Two Cousins"

Sheffield duo Slow Club released an absolutely stellar debut two years ago with Yeah So, and they're back, releasing their sophomore album, Paradise, on September 13th via Moshi Moshi. Below is the music video for new single "Two Cousins" from the new album. While relatively simplistic, it's quite entertaining and incredibly heartwarming. Fittingly, the two men featured in this beautifully shot black and white piece look as though they might just be cousins. The classic swing/jazz dance moves capture the song's reassuring, celebratory sound. What's most memorable about the video, though, is the way in which it touches upon sentimentality in a playful but heartfelt way with nothing more than the poeticism that lies in movement.

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Slow Club Give Away Free New EP

Slow Club is giving away their new EP, Let's Fall Back In Love, for free at www.slowclub-yeahso.com. The EP comprises a few new takes on some tracks from their Mixtape Muse-acclaimed debut Yeah So as well as a few new songs. It continues the duo's trend of consistently great songwriting. Check it out. It's free!

The band also recently filmed some awesome live performances while on tour. You can check those out below.

REVIEW: Slow Club - Yeah So

Slow Club - Yeah So
MMMM

Slow Club (aka Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor) make the kind of music one might turn to in the wake of a break up, but not in the way you might think. Yeah So is a befitting title as these songs are more empowering than a sounding board for sorrow. Love is a serious thing, but it also comes and goes. The songs here might be about heartbreak and overcoming the pains of love, but that doesn’t at all limit their reach and appeal. They sing with an air of optimism and have soaring voices that can overcome it all.

As a two piece, they could easily be much more laid back and straightforward with their approach to song structure, but instead they possess a dynamic range. With hints of country, folk, rockabilly, indie, and pop, the duo uses distinctive styles to convey particular feelings. One of the most prominent strengths on this record is their sense of pacing. They know when to slow the pace and when to pick it back up again, displayed in the rhythm changes of “Trophy Room” and the seamless transition from the opening track, “When I Go,” into the electrifying energy of “Giving Up On Love.”

This record is also successful on account of its use of balance. The duo provides equal doses of those fragile moments through the lullaby-style acoustic songs (“Sorry About the Doom”) along with that more rollicking rockabilly spirit (“It Doesn’t Have To Be Beautiful”). Watson and Taylor have voices that are well-suited for one another, much like Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood on Nancy & Lee. They sound not as if they are singing to one another, but are instead singing of the same shared experience – Watson singing for the boy, Taylor singing for the girl. It is their constant harmonization that proves that strength comes in this balance, adding a more heartfelt depth to the album’s character. Both are like two (forlorn) lovers staring at the same moon, thinking the same thing.

Yeah So is a bold introductory statement, with enduring songs that we can all relate to at some level or another. What Yeah So says is that things come and go, but memories are everlasting. Success and failure are just different names for the same life lessons. It is an album that says we’re all in it together. As different as we might be, we all share something in the end.

BUY: Yeah So is out now on Moshi Moshi. Buy it here or here.

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Moshi Moshi Records

ALSO...I came across a bunch of listings for one of Slow Club's appearances at this year's SXSW that read "March 20th - Barbarella (Moshi Moshi/Mixtape Muse/Wichita/Glitoris Party). For the record, none of us were at this year's SXSW and we were not involved with this show. I'm still scratching my head as to why our name was associated with this show and why this listing with our name appeared on multiple websites.

Slow Club Releasing Debut Album In U.S.

I'll admit that I'm a total anglophile. I've also believed for the longest time that when lyrics are sung by a British singer, they just sound more convincing and sincere. This love of English music also extends to most other European countries.

The point of this unnecessary lead-in is to preface the introduction of Sheffield, England duo Slow Club. Charles (vocals, guitar) and Rebecca (vocals, guitar, percussion) make music that can only best be defined as alternative folk rock; incorporating folk's wholesome harmonies while playing with the rolling energy of rockabilly. They are at once serene and energizing.

Moshi Moshi Records has been a beloved label in the U.K. over the past decade and recently decided to expand their operations to the U.S. The label has been responsible for launching and developing the careers of a wide variety of artists over the years, including Bloc Party, Hot Chip, Kate Nash, Lykke Li, Florence and The Machine, The Drums, Au Revoir Simone, and Mates of State. Slow Club's debut album Yeah, So was released by the label overseas in mid-2009, and with the American expansion of Moshi Moshi comes the U.S. release of Yeah, So complete with a bonus disk of b-sides and live material. The re-release is scheduled for...March 30th. I'm starting to think March 30th is the holy grail of release days for 2010.

Yeah, So Tracklisting:

1) When I Go
2) Giving Up On Love
3) I Was Unconscious, It Was A Dream
4) It Doesn't Have To Be Beautiful
5) There Is No good Way To Say I'm Leaving You
6) Trophy Room
7) Because We're Dead
8) Dance Till The Morning Light
9) Sorry About The Doom
10) Come On Youth
11) Apples And Pairs
12) Our Most Brilliant Friends

(Bonus Disk)
1) Let's Fall Back In Love
2) Me & You
3) Wild Blue Milk
4) Christmas TV
5) Because We're Dead (Live At Union Chapel)

Watch the behind-the-scenes, fast-moving, and (seemingly) one-shot video for "It Doesn't Have To Be Beautiful" below:

http://www.moshimoshimusic.com/
http://www.myspace.com/slowclub