LiveWire Music reviews the "The Joy of the Return" by The Slow Readers Club
Manchester’s The Slow Readers Club (TSRC) are back with a fourth album, The Joy Of The Return, which came out on March 20th 2020. I’ve had this album for three weeks now and I wrote this about 10 days ago, but held off releasing it until now. Quite often as reviewers we listen to an album or single repeatedly over a couple of days and write a review. With the current lockdown in effect I thought I’d try something different. I wrote the review and scored it. Now I’ve returned to it….. fresh so to speak to re-read what I put, edit it and amend my score…… Always a dangerous thing to do !
TSRC write lyrics that reflect life in the 21st century so well. The album, as you will see undulates between joy and despair brilliantly, as they cover subjects such as young love and alienation through to the rise of hard hitting political imagery such as the cult of popularity and computer generated propaganda.
The album kicks off with “All I Hear” Sweeping vocals from Aaron Starkie ride above a wonderful pounding drum beat punchy drums and guitar. TSRC lyrical skill shines through with simple but evocative lyrics such as ‘And the money that you make, it is making you a slave’ and ‘Been trying to catch a wave for so long, you know this tale too well’. A great start to the album.
This leads straight into track two “Something Missing” raising the tempo but continuing the punchy structure of the album. The lyrics shine through once again with a take of someone living the expected life, education, working hard, but somehow, every single day it feels like there is something missing. Close to being my favourite track on the album.
Beautifully emotional, thoughtful and haunting lyrics abound on “The Problem Child” a tragic tale of a dysfunctional youth. “For you the odds were stacked, the pain of life did overflow…….. loved by no one” which really pack a punch. I think this is what I enjoy most about TSRC style, despite some haunting subject matters, they sway brilliantly from dark material to uplifting so easily and almost un-noticeably and the music remains upbeat in texture and joyful, easy to sing along with or dance to.
This is brilliantly demonstrated by the next track “Jericho” which comes over as full of joy, excitement and optimism. A perfect track made for a sunny day or open air festival.
Although “Something Missing” pushed it close, my favourite track on this album has to be “No Surprise”. Emotive lyrics underpinned by heavy bass/drum beats give it a melancholy flavour. Powerful lines such as ‘Algorithms filter our reality, so it came as no surprise that each of us had lived a lie’ and ‘I scaled the highest peak, the scene defies belief, looked out on all the horrors of humanity…. all man conspired to cultivate a tragedy’ are dark but are conveyed in a way that raises above it’s melancholic base.
“Paris” is again by contrast far more laid back and relaxed, with an almost dreamy chorus “Take me back, take me back to Paris, to the breaking of the dawn”.
“Killing Me”, “All the Idols” and “Every Word” are all worthy tracks, I particularly enjoyed the powerful guitar intro to “Killing Me” and the way “All the Idols” arrives so softly, and delicate before rising to a heavy, exceptional punchy peak, before suddenly drifting away almost dream like into nothingness. Beautiful !
“Zero Hour” has a more synthesised sound to it, building before ending abruptly, leading us in nicely to the final track “The Wait”. A beautiful bassline intro leads us to simply stunning vocals ‘I wait for the kiss, the taste of your lips, I’m in heaven’. As the track builds to a crescendo it perfectly rounds off the album, the refrain ‘Now you’re here, you are all that matters’ almost aimed at the listener.
As I said, I originally wrote my review 10 days ago. At that point I was going to give it a score of 4/5. But coming back to it today, I realised that having done the ‘business’ of reviewing it, the album has been a regular on my daily Spotify playlist ever since. No particular song or two, but the whole album as I realised there really isn’t a weak song on this album, and quite bluntly…… I’m struggling to fault it - Beautifully crafted it wanes between heavy and light so effortlessly. So as a result, I wholeheartedly give this a 5/5 rating !
This is The Slow Readers Club best release so far, and I hope they are on the cusp of greater things, and any one of the tracks on this album could see them breakthrough to more mainstream success.
The Slow Readers Club are on the road again with the album in the autumn of 2020 through late October / early November. I will certainly be catching them live at Nottingham’s Rock City on 28 October, and look forward to bringing you a live review.
