Manchester-based indie electro/doom pop band The Slow Readers Club release their new album ‘Knowledge Freedom Power‘ this week and it’s our new Album of the Week.
Produced with Joe Cross (Hurts/Courteeners), the record is “a sizzling synth-rock beast of a record akin to White Lies, Muse and modern-day Bloc Party, and a rallying cry of emancipation, both stylistically and socially”.
Speaking about it, Frontman Aaron Starkie said:
“The world had got so bleak it felt a little indulgent to paint apocalyptic pictures when they were out in the real world. I thought people would probably want to hear more uplifting things, it was my intention to be a bit more positive. There’s still a lot of melodrama in there and it’s still dystopian in places but there’s more positive shades in this record.”
Although ‘Knowledge Freedom Power’ finds the band channelling a brighter spirit, their famously ferocious and insightful lyricism is always present.
A beam of hope shines throughout ‘Sacred Song’: part in the form of a spiritual saviour, but also embracing the power of love as a force for good, something which can also be achieved by the friendship and community spirit infused in ‘Lay Your Troubles On Me’. Yet a darkness still looms large, whether its within the warmongering satire – and ultimately individual powerlessness – of ‘Seconds Out’ or the steady march of automation over the human workforce on opener ‘Modernise’.
The album is out this Friday, February 24 via Modern Sky UK. Get it here.
