If the last you’d heard from Slowly Slowly was 2020’s Race Car Blues, this might really surprise you. For starters, there’s the fact that it exists at all. They were far from huge but had what felt like enough groundswell to stave off disappearing altogether, which is seemingly what happened given the lack of chatter around them for the last half-decade. They have, in fact, still been active, with an album Daisy Chain at the end of 2022 that spawned a pretty terrific pop-rock song in Nothing On, a graceful landing following the sizable jump away from their emo bedrock.
That’s the other thing—in sound and presence, the distance has only widened. And it’s not really the same as the Jimmy Eat World-esque approach for Race Car Blues growing out from more brittle emo affairs in Chamomile and St. Leonards. It’s a full, holistic pop-rock redress, complete with the spirit of everyone’s favourite milked-to-the-point-of-shrivelling cash-cow, the ‘80s. Slowly Slowly, however, have definitely taken more care than a lazy synthpop pivot that strips for parts all what was great about them. Their vision of the ‘80s is defined by heartland-rock sweep, closest in modern frames of reference to a band like Bleachers than the played-out new wave starter kit (thankfully).
It’s why it’s unfortunate that even Nothing On alone, as a prospective morsel of crossover,didn’t stop Slowly Slowly from slipping backward. It’s not nothing to actively avoid the most blatant gimmes from an era that’s already rinsed. Coupled with a strength in execution and ideas unmolested from their emo days, there’s a lot that’s done right while still liable to be built on by Forgiving Spree. Here, Slowly Slowly are aligned to take yet another step ahead, even closer to that Bleachers-esque, retro-but-not-really feel, while making the active decision to keep their emo identity in mind.
They’re not perfect at it, it should be said. In Slowly Slowly’s defence, there are temptations opened up amid these wider musical vistas to embrace the big, cinematic romance of it all, even if that means their own intrigue factor is made smaller. How Are You Mine and Love Letters are friendly yet familiar ballads, especially the latter in its particular flavour of steamy synth-gloss. All Time is where the saccharine really becomes concentrated, though, as Ben Stewart implants himself and his wife into various historical scenes to illustrate how they’ve always been destined to find each other. It’s…cute, though that fact that Stewart’s wife is the first person to see every song he writes handily brushes away any other reason for these ones to exist. Even then, if her own stunned reaction at the end of Born Free—the shockingly stark, quivering closer, sonically fathoms away from anything else on the album—is any indication, she’d likely agree that Slowly Slowly’s best work is when they’re going through it a bit.
As gauche as it might be to suggest, Forgiving Spree does still want its emo tendencies, at the end of the day. The wide, open yonder of the heartland is fit to accommodate that, so much so that the album can boast its most addictive chorus on Gimme The Wrench while referencing Good Will Hunting and the tool that Matt Damon uses to flagellate himself. There’s an appreciable bit of meat on their sheen-soaked bones, even just in some more interesting lyrical soundbites. (What’s the last pop-rock album you heard that used the word “sabretooth”?) Thematically, though, Hurricane chronicling Stewart and his wife’s wedding to their miscarriage just four months later gives some commendable boldness to its pop bluster. That’s That is significantly less weighty, but bitter, bilious coping post-breakup will naturally pop against the album’s brightest gleam and single (and, luckily, effective) saxophone break.
It’s impressive to see how Slowly Slowly are running with that sound, particularly when their version of it is nothing groundbreaking. Bringing something new effectively involves muscling it out altogether, shown in the significantly drearier closing pair Meltdown Masquerade and Born Free. They’re odd outliers for an album with only nine tracks, honestly a little distracting when you get to them but not derailing either. Slowly Slowly have too strong a command of technique to fall for that, as they cultivate the impressive scale and light and windswept pace required. The clout / budget of an A-list pop girlie for a proper Jack Antonoff production job proves largely immaterial when it can be near-enough replicated on the title track or Gimme The Wrench. Meanwhile, more straightforward pop songs like Love Letters and That’s That still feel developed in how they don’t shun organic textures.
On the whole, for as overplayed as the ‘80s aesthetic continues to be (and will continue to be, thanks to everyone suffocating the industry with it), you can’t argue that Slowly Slowly aren’t a better take on it. At least there’s a breadth wider than a single idea wrung out till its final drop of worth. And even if it’s questionable how ‘natural’ any of these pivots are, Forgiving Spree can circumvent most cynical discussion on the basis of its likability alone. If the aim was to feel to fresh and keep progressing to that grander rock apex, then mission accomplished—Slowly Slowly have managed to effectively re-coat themselves without damning compromise. It’s just nice to see one of these that wears that well, rather than pre-approved spiel as slapdash papering for a cash-grab that, by the end, isn’t even well covered. Rather, you get a lovely, genuine reintroduction to a band that deserved more than they ever got. Hopefully, with something like this that can penetrate a greater base, that time will come.
For fans of: Bleachers, Jimmy Eat World, The Killers
‘Forgiving Spree’ by Slowly Slowly is released on 24th January on Nettwork Music Group.
Words by Luke Nuttall
