Album #303: Slow Pulp – Moveys

• Released: 2020
• Origin: Madison, Wisconsin, USA
• Label: Winspear
• Best Track: Channel 2

Looking at this page’s Twitter feed, I seem to have got into a recent cycle of reviewing albums with animals on the cover. Unless I’m getting subliminal messages from the RSPCA, it’s entirely coincidental, although I’m continuing the trend to some extent here, with this debut from Slow Pulp featuring some variety of winged insect on the front.

Anyway, this is the sort of music that often gets referred to as “bedroom rock”. I hear something that hovers between dream-pop and grunge, and I happen to like it a lot. The vocals and guitars are hazy, summery and yet also comfortingly downbeat, and the male/female vocal crossover is always a good recipe in my book.

On the first half of the record, any of ‘Trade It’, ‘Idaho’, ‘Track’ and ‘At It Again’ are ones to lose yourself in, then ‘Montana’ later in the album is a bit of a harmonica tearjerker, but I think it peaks on the My Bloody Valentine-esque ‘Channel 2’.

If Moveys can be accused of being a little samey, the band seem to try and address this with a piano interlude (‘Whispers’) and a curious bit of hip-hop/funk to end with. Both are out of step with the rest of the album and, while they don’t add much to it, they certainly don’t do it any harm either.