Round-up Tracks: Superfood, Sløtface, Everything Everything and more

If recent singles ‘Double Dutch’ and ‘I Can’t See’ suggested that Superfood’s musical horizons had broadened further than anyone might reasonably expect, then ‘Unstoppable’ is the track that cements the Birmingham group as an entirely different band to the one you previously knew.

Built around a dubby bounce of a bass line, and coming on like The Specials crashing Notting Hill Carnival, its only real ‘indie’ point of comparison is in its Gorillaz-esque dystopian outro.

Described to us by the band as a song written about the feeling of drinking about 16 pints, it perfectly captures that heady daze where anything feels possible. The band’s new album ‘Bambino’ is sure to have a few hangovers from this unadulerated joy, but for these three-and-a-half minutes, Superfood sound like they’re on top of the world. Unstoppable by name, unstoppable by nature. (Lisa Wright)

Across their handful of singles and EPs, and teasers from their forthcoming debut album, Sløtface have become a band of many faces. From the huge, fizzy pop of ‘Take Me Dancing’ to the socially-conscious, biting ‘Magazine’, the four Norwegians have always managed to marry their anger and their joy perfectly.

On ‘Pitted’, the third taster of upcoming debut album ‘Try Not To Freak Out’, they’re the kid being a grump on the sofa, opting for the sofa and Netflix over a nauseating number of Jagerbombs, only to be convinced out anyway, and ending up having one to remember.

Haley Shea then proceeds to rattles through the track full to the brim with youthful abandon and unbridled energy, if feeling a bit sicky after too many glasses of fizz: “Why did no-one warn me about the dangers of playing I Have Never with prosecco…something’s definitely bubbling up” she winks.

Like all the best nights though, she stumbles out of the door eventually, doing her best dad dancing and shouting at the DJ to play Beyoncé. From the soaring highs to the (potentially vomit-inducing) lows, Sløtface perfectly capture the essence of being young and reckless. On last track ‘Nancy Drew’, they paid tribute to the fictional American detective and took aim at anything in their devastating path; here, they celebrate the joys and pitfalls of going out and getting absolutely trolleyed.

Everything that’s brilliant about this band is crushed down into two-and-a-half minutes of the best punk-pop we’ve heard so far this year: snarling, hooky, sarcastic and life-affirming at once, ‘Pitted’ indicates that Sløtface’s upcoming debut album will be one to treasure. (Will Richards)

With ‘Can’t Do’, the lead single from their upcoming album, Everything Everything had a simple message: they weren’t going to bend to anyone’s whim. They wrapped this mantra up in one of their tightest tunes yet, but keep cheekily nodding to the fact that they very rarely pigeonhole themselves. So in amongst the upbeat pop synths and Jonathan Higgs’ falsetto, there were small bursts of melodic bass and new wave guitars because, in Jonathan’s words, “nobody knows what normal is”.

On the album’s title track, ‘A Fever Dream’, they’re on similarly expectation-bending form. It kicks off with the distant, echoing sound of a choir before introducing simple, bare piano and Jonathan’s voice. Even over this twinkling start though, there’s something dark lurking underneath, as he sings “I hate the neighbours, they hate me too/ Fear and the fury make me feel good”.

Soon the melancholic melody begins to blossom, twisting itself around glitch-ridden house beats and swirling, arpeggiated synths that become more and more strident as time passes. Jonathan repeats the same line over and over, each one overlapping just a little, locking the listener into a hypnotic and, yes, feverish web of sound and fury, seemingly unable to escape. It’s intense and seemingly unrelenting, but willingly dragging yourself away from the cycle is practically an impossibility. (Eugenie Johnson)

Have a cursory listen to Samantha Urbani’s latest track and you might think you’ve gone straight back to a time when the likes of Janet Jackson were ruling the charts. Well, albeit with a lot more crunching, aggressive guitars thrown into the mix (another little nod to her days fronting punk-pop group Friends).

But the first track from her upcoming EP ‘Policies of Power’ asked the listener to ‘Go Deeper’, to consider the necessity of visibility and accountability are, and in her words, “getting to the bottom of things, transformatively”. That’s exactly what ‘Hints & Implications’ encourages further. On the surface level, it’s a track where Samantha struggles to deal with a relationship that isn’t working, finding herself at breaking point.

Scratch that surface though, and Samantha says that it’s about “the ontology of truth”, and “whether communication/”honesty” is even possible”. As such, she constantly grapples with not just the state of her relationship, but also the nature of what “the truth” even is. “Thought it was sweet to have nothing to hide”, she sings, realising that sometimes this policy of honesty isn’t the best course of action, secrets becoming like Schrödinger’s Cat. “I’m caught up in needing the truth”, she admits at the track’s climax, vocal clips swirling around her as if trying to mask her plea. ‘Hints & Implications’ is more than just a belter of a vintage pop tune; it’s also a deft examination of perception and interpersonal relationships. (Eugenie Johnson)

Tags: Everything Everything, Sløtface, Superfood, Listen, Features