Album Review: The Soft Cavalry by The Soft Cavalry

Somewhere between shoegaze and synth-pop, tackling frustration, anxiety and confusion, this powerful debut shows it's never too late to follow your dreams The Soft Cavalry's eponymous debut is borne out of an old-fashioned love-story. Until 2014, Steve Clarke - the group's mastermind, lead vocalist and guitarist - was working as a jobbing musician, providing backing vocals for various musicians whilst also balancing work as a tour manager. In 2014, Clarke was asked to work with the newly reformed Slowdive, where he met their vocalist and guitarist, Rachel Goswell.

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Having played in bands since the late 1990s, Clarke is not a newcomer, but there hasn't been much about the various endeavors he has been a part of - Dum Dums, Rogue States, Ricky-Gervais-as-David-Brent's Foregone Conclusion, all well and good in their own right - that has foreshadowed the kind of album he's come up with here. The Soft Cavalry is one of those records fueled by filed-away aspirations and ideas that have finally been called up. Rachel Goswell of Slowdive , Clarke's partner in The Soft Cavalry and in life, was crucial in instigating the project.

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Following their collaboration on 2016's debut Minor Victories album, Rachel Goswell of Slowdive and her husband, Steve Clarke, have created the Soft Cavalry. It is primary songwriter Clarke's first time at the helm of a record after many years spent touring, and more recently joining Slowdive as tour manager.   Over 12 songs, Clarke and Goswell weave an enrapturing world of tracks exploring resilience, anxieties and the ability to find and trust in love. Awash with natural imagery, The Soft Cavalry ventures in many directions: "The Velvet ….

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S lowdive's reunion in 2014 didn't just spawn a great fourth album and sensational victory-lap tour. The band's singer-guitarist Rachel Goswell met her husband Steve Clarke when he tour-managed the reformed act and the pair have now created their own album as The Soft Cavalry, exploring the same spacey, effects-heavy pastures as Slowdive but with licence to roam further. The album starts with the lead singles Dive and Bulletproof, which are solid enough indie-rock efforts.

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The Soft Cavary is more than just a Slowdive side project. In fact, it isn't a Slowdive side-project at all: it's an endeavor orchestrated almost entirely by Steve Clarke, husband of Slowdive's Rachel Goswell. Clarke is no newcomer to the music scene; he's been steady contributing to quite a few bands of the late 1990's, and has all this time carried with him a unique penchant for emotional narrative songwriting.

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