INDIEPOP KIDS, north and south, east and west: if C86, early Creation, Sarah Records and taking the subway to your suburb raise gladness in your heart, then you need to be listening to Swedish lovelies The Slow Summits.
Hailing from the southern city of Linköping, The Slow Summits draw on the vocal, rhythm guitar and tambourine talents of Anders Nyberg; bassist and backing vocalist Mattias Holmqvist, lead guitarist Karl Sunnermalm, and drummer Fredrik Svensson; with all eight hands involved also getting a mention.
Let’s let the lads themselves introduce The Slow Summits aesthetic, since they have a really sweet and self-effacing way with words, as I’m sure you’ll agree:
“The Slow Summits are a bunch of stressed-out middle class dreamers trying to write songs that will make the late washing up, the lawn-mowing on rainy days, the ironing of non-ironed shirts, the paying of past-due bills and the early Saturday mornings in front of a telly showing people playing video games, a bit more jolly.
“Hopefully our songs will make you wonder, laugh, or nod in agreement. At best, they’ll be a momentary cure for the angst of everyday life, and will make you dance till your socks come off.
“The songs aren’t extraordinary. The lyrics aren’t unique. However, they treat everyday life, its interactions, the shortcomings and dilemmas in ways you don’t hear every day. Humorous and honest, they’re songs in the key of midlife. They might come off as judgemental, sung from the backs of high horses, heckling to a point where Statler and Waldorf would have blushed. But the arrows are pointed just as much towards the band members themselves as towards anybody else.
“For The Slow Summits the melodies are what matters, the guitars are necessarily jangly and the craftsmanship is scarce. In the words of Mark E. Smith: It’s a mistreating of instruments to get feelings over.
“Hopefully our songs will make you feel. If not elated, then a wee bit warmer inside.
“The Slow Summits are the long johns of pop. Some days you will need us.”
Awww! And their very latest warming single is out today, and we’ve got it for you below: it’s proper janglepop, one-note lead lines, strumsomely gorgeous, a little of Mighty Mighty or Davey Woodward circa What’s In A Word, in Anders’ singing. Tune, frankly. With a T. Three minutes, fifty seconds of simpler guitar joys.
Back to the band for their verdict on the song: “Some might call it catchy. Others, annoyingly catchy. Then there are those who think catchy is a way too simple description of a song, who think that, even if, to the slightest extent, it would be acceptable to make such an indolent and colloquial labelling – this song definitely does not meet any of the criteria, and would argue that since the origin of the concept ‘catchy’ in 1831 there have been only three times in music history where it has been more wrongly used.
“This song is for these chaps.”
The Slow Summits “About Then Again” is out today on digital streaming platforms via Hundreds and Thousands Records. You can hear earlier gems such as the “Languid Belles” EP, “Safe And Sorry” and “Not The One” over at Spotify.
Connect with The Slow Summits elsewhere on the web at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and at Bandcamp.
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