Female-fronted slacker rock seems to be the gift that keeps on giving in 2016, regardless of what Trump may say. Palehound, Courtney Barnett and Speedy Ortiz are three names that are deepening the groove and Brooklyn’s Forth Wanderers look to embellish that further. They are no half-arsed addition either, Slop steers perfectly through carelessness into the warm seas of the melodic.

Opener, ‘Know Better’ is a slack, sloppy stab at punk. Wait, this is no bad thing at all; in carrying lethargy it opens up room for oozing vocals to cut through. When the tempo does pick up, it doesn’t feel over-bearing or too desperate to be lo-fi. What I mean by this, is that there is a desperation for bands to capture lo-fidelity in their recordings nowadays, meaning what was once a happy accident is now a purposeful car crash. Forth Wanderers though sound polished and well produced but they never lose the intention of having a laid back sound.

As Ava Trilling, lead vocalist for the five-piece hits track two (the album-titled track) her nonchalant vocals reside in the middle ground between hope and utter acceptance of inevitable disappointment: “I know I’m weird, I’ve been told / New fears they get old too / They get old soon / Like thinking of you / Like breathing for two”. The hopeful romanticism gouged into Trilling’s poetics is synonymous with a whole bunch of millennials, including myself; desperate to love but at the same time too afraid and passive to know where to start. The music that encompasses Trilling’s thoughts is equally as wistful and trashy, never overbearing, never drowning out her voice but rather tentatively stepping around it.

‘Unfold’ seems to bear a little more of a sinister make-up. The slides that evolve around the neck of Ben Guterl’s guitar carry a sense of dread and this is never really released throughout, it poses a threat but never really uncoils to release anything. Whether this is intentional or not doesn’t really matter, it keeps you on edge as Trilling utters more paranoid thoughts, despairingly caught within teenage anxiety. Given Trilling only graduated from high school in June, it’s completely forgivable.

Where ‘Unfold’ struggled to ever climax, ‘Nerves’ more than let’s go, opening with a slight hat-tip to the Pixies’ ‘Caribou’, it surfs upon the wake of Black Francis and co throughout. The dart-like sharpness in Trilling’s voice seems to cut through the feedback and sludgy sounds that omit from the guitars. There’s something true in the song that grips you, it’s angsty and teenage – wanting to scream and shout much louder that it actually does on record. It holds a certain promise for the live show though.

This is an EP that is cut at just the right length. Had the group tried to pull off an entire LP, it may have felt slightly tired by the end but with just four tracks, it leaves you baying for more. It’s the sound of a (very) young band who are already making their mark on a global scale. Inexperience and amateurish moments stick out on the EP but that is easily forgiven, given their age and also the fact it actually characterises the release somewhat. Now sit poised for the UK tour that surely must be on the cards.
Tom Churchill

Website: forthwanderers.life
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