Slow Club at Rough Trade East

There’s a lot of hype about Slow Club right now. Hailing from Sheffield, Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor formed in 2006. Last night they released and performed tracks from their new album Complete Surrender at Rough Trade East.

The multi-talented duo play an array of instruments between them, which on the small Rough Trade stage was a slight hindrance. Having to weave in and out of each other between every song in order to get to the new instrument they’d be playing, you know that on a bigger stage this would flow better. Being joined by Fyfe Dangerfield and Avvon Chambers made the manoeuvring even harder. Despite this, they ad libbed very well, cracking jokes and chatting to the audience with such assurance that you’d have thought they’d been around for years. That they have, but not to such critical acclaim before. They released their first studio album back in 2009 but as Taylor said last night, this one is “career defining”. 

Opening with title track Complete Surrender, the Motown energy and 80s synths are reminiscent of Metronomy. Teetering on the edge of jazz, Slow Club prove they are versatile with pensive love songs sung acoustically. When Watson whispers into tender tune Paraguay and Panama it’s hard to believe it’s the same lad who was telling the audience about ironing his shirt for the gig in a strong northern accent moments before. Suffering Me, Suffering You is an upbeat tune a Richard Curtis soundtrack would be proud of.

With typical northern warmness that you can’t help but root for, Slow Club may be still trying to find their feet but the journey sounds fantastic.

Samantha Waite

For further information and future events visit Slow Club’s website here.

Watch the video for Suffering You, Suffering Me here: