An extremely late entry that has gone
straight into the midst of the top 5: this was released in the summer but I
only got around to having a listen and buying it in early December. In the couple of weeks since I’ve listened
to it around ten times a day. If I’d have
had it for longer, who knows, it could have made a push for top spot. These lists are necessarily a freeze frame: as
I type, this is still rising. What a
record. Simple but brilliant. Slaves
play punk. Not 90s pop punk, but punk. For good measure there’s some rock n’ roll
and groove rock thrown in, but this record is, quite simply, what punk sounds like
in 2015. How a two piece makes the
racket that they do I have no idea. Laurie Vincent’s riffs are consistently
fantastic, Isaac Holman’s Johnny Rotten drawl is hugely
infectious, and the lyrics seem really simple but in fact brim with social
commentary and double meaning. Well, it
is punk, after all. Drummers who sing
and stand up while playing are cool. But
then everything about Slaves is cool. To say it was a worthy Mercury Music prize
nominee is to downplay its brilliance significantly. I can’t see how on earth it didn’t win. The first absolute must have on the list this
year.
sample track: Hey
sample track: Hey
