SOFT PLAY - Heavy Jelly

Opening a record that, were it not for some intense work on themselves as individuals, as a unit, and as a band presenting itself to the world, might never have been written, the brutal pummel of ‘All Things’ feels fitting. An acceptance that people will never be entirely ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but a complex myriad of a thousand thoughts and feelings, it’s also a perhaps unwitting observation on what SOFT PLAY themselves manage to distil over the course of fourth album ‘HEAVY JELLY’. Eleven tracks that condense everything brilliant about the returning Kent two-piece – singing drummer Isaac Holman and guitarist Laurie Vincent – in a manner that feels truly confident in its own idiosyncratic skin, it’s an album that can sit a snarling shout from the middle of mental health issues (‘Isaac Is Typing…’) alongside a ridiculous ode to action hero ‘John Wick’ and a moving tribute to Isaac’s recently-passed friend Bailey (‘Everything and Nothing’) in a way that somehow makes complete sense.

Joining the dots are the pair at the centre, who lay themselves out on the record like open books. There are tracks here that could literally never come from the minds of any other band – take the gloriously madcap ‘Worms On Tarmac’ on which, over Laurie’s hard-as-nails, fizzing guitar lines, a character-accented Isaac frantically raps about the plight of invertebrates whose environment has been destroyed by us pesky humans. It’s loud and silly and strangely sweet, and exactly the sort of hyper-focused lens – peering at society and seeing the funny little details before wrapping them in circle-pit sized tunes – that makes SOFT PLAY such a unique proposition.