Album Review: Acts Of Fear And Love by Slaves

If Blur's 'The Great Escape' perfectly encapsulated mid-'90s Thatcherite Britain in all its middle-class aspirational kitsch, 'Acts of Fear and Love', Slaves' third - does a decidedly similar job sifting through today's grimy suburban rubble. 'Magnolia' is - after all - literally about the ubiquitous wall paint colour. "Daddy's got a new girl / young enough to be his kid / making up for lost time / things he wishes that he did", recalls 'Daddy', while opener 'The Lives They Wished They Had' muses on presenting our best selves online - and includes the humorous couplet "approach with caution / I've got my muscles to an intimidating proportion".

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The Kent punks reinvigorate their sound to brilliant effect on album number three, expanding their breakneck tunes into arena territory Slaves aren’t ones to hang around. Since 2015, they’ve been releasing albums at a speed almost as fast as their early, full-throttle tunes. For some bands, putting out your third album just three years after the first would spell disaster or - at the very least - mean relying on a tired, uninspiring blueprint.

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Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent, aka Slaves , those two noisy punks from Kent, have always managed to toe their way forward, keeping true to themselves - all the while being avoiding being entirely pigeonholed or thrust into a white-hot spotlight. While their debut set the scene for the idea behind Slaves, societal hawks who hone in on the justifiable anger of modernity, they moved to explore more hip-hop infused stylings on follow-up Take Control, with the help of the Beastie Boys ' Mike D. And now here we are.

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