On their second album, the band from Chicago shows with sensitive songs that indie rock is by no means obsolete.
Are two too many to be free? Singer and guitarist Emily Massey recently thought about the benefits of being alone. But she has been putting up with her three bandmates, whom she met at college in Wisconsin, for a long time. The quartet’s first EP was released in 2017 as an unpolished lo-fi production. Slow Pulp now sound more melodic and delicate.
On their debut album MOVEYS, released in 2020, the group presented a broader stylistic range. On YARD you can now also find a piano ballad and simple acoustics, as we know them from Phoebe Bridgers. The song “Broadview,” on the other hand, provides a successful Americana moment with banjo and harmonica that is reminiscent of Bright Eyes. And then there are indie rock songs like “Cramps” or “Worm”. Sometimes the sound seems deliberately decelerating, Massey’s singing is emphatically tired. But Slow Pulp are miles away from the ironic gestures of refusal of slackerism: Massey’s songwriting seems introspective and always reflective.