Album Review: Slowness by Outfit

Liverpool’s Outfit have been knocking around for most of this decade without making any great impression on the world. Perhaps it’s because their music sounds so unassertive and uninsistent at first: songs seem half-formed, with cool synths, piano, skeletal rhythms, a keening voice – and little more. It’s very much in the vein of what one music writer recently called “white pyjama music” – the unashamedly wimpy end of early 80s mainstream pop, in which groups such as the Lotus Eaters laid their hearts bare.

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As opener ‘New Air’ ends, Outfit have already submerged the listener in some artfully flowing keyboard lines and disembodied floating vocals, each syllable of “new air, new air, new air” merging into the next. It’s hellishly impressive that only one track in, the Liverpudlian band have already constructed and choreographed such an entrancing rise and fall. It’s theatrical and dramatic without being too pretentious.

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?Liverpool’s five-piece Outfit have by now earned a name for themselves among Britain’s much-respected alternative pop bands such as Dutch Uncles and Everything Everything. Indeed, touring with the latter last year certainly helped spread their eerie tones and groovy rhythms to likeminded ears. When circumstances meant they were to be spread over three cities - London, Liverpool, and New York - Outfit thus had something too special to let go in spite of the natural difficulties of long-distance.

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With their debut Performance, Outfit opened two possible creative paths. They easily could have cranked it up a notch and followed it up with a dance-fused electronic record brimming with melody and pop bliss. Or turned their sound inward, for a more focused and elegant exploration of the darker musical themes introduced on their debut. As the album title implies, Slowness is clearly the latter.

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You know about the big releases each week, but what about those smaller albums which may have passed underneath your radar. Don’t miss out on the smaller, lesser-known gems which might become some of your favourites. We’ve rounded up seven of the best new album releases from this week: catch up ….

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