‘Everyone Else’ is a disarmingly uncontroversial album title from a group with a both a sound and a band name as immensely enjoyable as Slothrust.
You almost wish they’d picked from tracks such as ‘Like a Child Hiding Behind Your Tombstone’ or ‘Pigpen’ when choosing the name for this collection, which in any case is a beguilingly raucous third offering from this New York three-piece.
Listeners have ‘had trouble comparing us to other bands’, says lead singer and guitarist Leah Wellbaum, who studied jazz & blues along with her two bandmates before developing the grunge-rock sound that this album showcases.
This trio is making waves
It’s been a three-year wait between this and their second album, a time in which the band have supported the likes of Manchester Orchestra, and signed to LA label Danger Bird Records, which boasts alumni including Minus the Bear and Hot Hot Heat. This trio is making waves, then, and its a warped oceanic theme that comes across most strongly throughout these ten tracks. ‘We were in the ocean / I was scared, you were dumb, it ate us both / vomiting our bones onto the seashore’, Wellbaum matter-of-factly relates on the bluesy romp ‘The Last Time I saw My Horse’.
Wellbaum’s vocals have been turned up since the last album, avoiding the loss of her lyrical astuteness within these songs, and allowing us to catch such vivid gems as ‘melt me into a bottle / I wish that I was a baby sucking on myself’ on ‘Like a Child…’. The pace of the album ebbs and flows intelligently, rattling through ‘Rotten Pumpkins’ before slowing down for the echoing opening of ‘Horseshoe Crab’.
This album should give the mainstream rock scene a petulant kick to the shins
The band aren’t a million miles from the Boston group Fucko, whose album also impressed in 2016. There’s even something a little bit British in the composition, reminiscent of The Subways or early Biffy Clyro. There is a new ingredient here, however, and this album should give the mainstream rock scene, if they weren’t already listening, a petulant kick to the shins.
To hear for yourself, you can find Slothrust touring Europe this autumn, including a Berlin show on 3rd November, ahead of releasing their next album.
