Here's The Best Little Pop Band You've Never Heard

Slow Club are a duo from Sheffield, England who specialize in heartbreaking soul and folk ballads, and you ought to check them out. Hey, Daniel Radcliffe is a fan, so why not you?

Slow Club are a duo of singer-songwriters, Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor, who have been putting out music since the late '00s.

Andy Earl

They started off as a more of a twee, folky band on their 2009 debut Yeah, So, but have since evolved into a more versatile pop group with a particular knack for big soulful tunes and atmospheric ballads. They really hit their stride in 2011 with "Two Cousins," the first single from their second album, Paradise.

Taylor and Watson's emotional tunes and witty, engaging presence in their live shows has earned them a strong cult following, including Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe, who appeared in the video for their song "Beginners."

The way Rebecca Taylor sings "you know I don't have all the answers / if I did, I would be screaming them out!" in the middle of this song is utterly heartbreaking, and a great example of what this band does best. She's so good at conveying a wounded vulnerability in her voice while also sounding strong and forthright.

There's always been a touch of R&B influence in their music, but now it's at the center of what they're doing on their new album, Complete Surrender.

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"Suffering You, Suffering Me," a song written and sung by Taylor, turns into a straight-up Motown tribute by the second verse.

They aren't just focusing on the more bombastic side of R&B. "Tears of Joy," the opening track, is low key and groovy in a way that's totally new for them.

On the other side of the emotional spectrum, Taylor and Watson are also jerking tears of incredible emotional anguish on their acoustic ballad "Dependable People and Things That I Am Sure Of."

And as their music has become more mature and sophisticated, so has their image. When they began, they were scrappy outsiders, but in the video for the album's title track, they're both sexy and glamorous.

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The new album has a very classy sound, which is somewhat intentional. “Well I’m a classy lady," Taylor told Consequence of Sound in a recent interview. “Champagne and oysters and diamonds is what I was thinking about all the time, I was literally saying that in the studio, I wanted it to sound expensive. I love fabulous things, but I love shit things as well.”

Slow Club's Complete Surrender is out this week on Wichita in North America and Europe, and they'll be on tour through the end of the year. You can stream the album in full here, courtesy of The Guardian, below.