Photo Credit: Alexa Viscius
Emerging Chicago-based indie band Slow Pulp are back with their second album Yard, their first release on ANTI Records. The band are formed of childhood friends, with guitarist Henry Stoehr and drummer Teddy Matthews even attending elementary school together in Madison, Wisconsin. Later the pair met bass player Alex Leeds while attending a music program together. Singer/guitarist Emily Massey came on to the scene later, when they attended Wisconsin-Madison University together.
Massey had began working on the Yard album while staying at a friends cabin in Wisconsin in February 2022, the isolation allowing her to connect deeply with nature and write from the heart, and this certainly shines through in every way on the record.
Opening track Gone 2 “was a silver song and we turned it into a brown and purple song” Stoehr explains, with the 2 added when the band decided to scrap the original version and create another version late on in the recording process. Next song Doubt has a very catchy chorus of “Take me out/Put me down/I just wanted your do do do do do do doubt.”
Yard springs to life with single Cramps, with Stoehr’s guitar playing a standout on the song. The track is straight out of a 1990s UK indie playlist.
Stoehr reveals that the chords for Slugs originally came from a song about a crush he had in the sixth grade, titled Imagination at the time. Massey’s vocals are dominant in Slugs and emanate a summery feeling with the lyrics: “You’re a summer hit/I’m singing it.”
Lyrically MUD is by far the outstanding track on the album, with an almost punky guitar riff alongside Massey’s pulsating vocals. The lyrics are very deep and moving: “I don’t know what I am doing here/Yet another full moon I missed this year/Do you miss me dear/Can’t be this alone and stay so clear/Wanna be an astronaut and get out of here.”
Described by Massey as a song “about letting yourself fall in love for the first time in a long time”, Broadview has a slow, country music feel about it, featuring pedal steel by Peter Briggs and harmonica and banjo by Willie Christianson.
Massey hits the nail on the head when summing up Yard: “I like that by the end of the album, your finding the love within yourself, not searching for it within other people.” An album for many moods, fans can look forward to hearing the songs live on the band’s upcoming tours throughout North America, the UK and Europe. Quite a few of the UK dates are sold out already, so don’t hesitate in buying a ticket!
8/10
Standout Tracks: Cramps, Slugs, MUD, Fishes
For Fans Of: Tanukichan, Soccer Mommy, Momma
Written by: Alan Brown
