Hailing from the musical heartland of Tyne & Wear, Slow Decades are a collective of musicians based around the songwriting of vocalist, Ben Lowes-Smith. The band released their debut album, The Frost & The Concrete back in 2014, which was followed in 2017 by their most recent offering, Hinterlands. The band are currently working on a series of releases, “daisy-chained by the theme of deterioration”, and today we’re premiering the first of those, the band’s new single, Ambient Violence.

Ambient Violence is described, rather beautifully I think, by Ben as, “a song inviting you to insulate yourself from fears of societal decline by taking comfort in the transportive nature of love, and the idea that everything is impermanent”. Lyrically, the track seems to be an attempt to cast off years of well worn cynicism and embrace that rarest of wonders, hope, “let’s get married on our lunch break, it seems like we’re like young love’s dream with the exception so it seems, we’re aware of our mortality”.

Musically, the track starts off on a moody, almost reverential organ, before being joined by Ben’s vocal, a rich, baritone of a voice reminiscent of Mt. Doubt or Wild Beasts’ Tom Fleming, as he sings, “I see fragments of myself in empty shop windows and I think did we used to holiday here?” Then, as his mind turns to karaoke and mortality, suddenly the song erupts on a flourish of twanging, indie-pop guitars and a suitably crashing drum beat. From there the track walks the line between the almost retro indie-pop stylings of Camera Obscura and the more grandiose flourish of White Lies. This feels like an impressive next step for Slow Decades, a band growing with each release, and marking the start of this new decade they could be well set for a rapid rise.

Ambient Violence is out today. Click HERE for more information on Slow Decades.