The 'Slump' EP by Trust Club

I'd say "finally" here is the new Trust Club EP ‘Slump' but such is the pace of its arrival (only three days after the most recent single "The Fear") that the question is probably less of anticipation & more about processing all this music.

Recorded, as we've previously mentioned, during the same sessions which generated the tracks which appeared on their previous ‘This is Trust Club' EP, three of the five songs ("All I Can Do" and "Not Quite" in addition to "The Fear") have already appeared & been reviewed in single format: I hope you've had time to process, digest & to enjoy them. The two you won't have heard yet are called "Fall Asleep" and "Feel It Like You Do".

The former is more akin to the first couple of singles than the most recent one with a nod or too in the direction of bands like Weezer and Rozwell Kid while the latter (which had quite a long gestation period) owes something they feel to the likes of Superdrag and My Bloody Valentine, I heard traces of The Police in there too.

At this point, I completely abandon my tentative theory which I advanced after hearing the first couple of singles: whatever Trust Club intended in the sequence of how tracks were released or appear on the EP, getting successively darker (or louder) was not part of the plan. If anything, the EP "peaks" in its middle in these respects which gives us a nice journey rather than a simple linear progression.  

As I say, "Feel It Like You Do" (which appears in the penultimate slot) took time to get right: it was only demoed just before the sessions began & only reached maturity when everyone knew it and understood it enough to give it the most appropriate treatment: they feel that it is atypical of their material: but I'm not sure that I'd consider that a problem: as noted throughout this series of ‘Slump' related reviews, their range is broad & well documented across the two EPs: I feel one might amalgamate them into a really diverse & thought provoking album.

"Fall Asleep" was created in as contrasting a fashion as is possible: an intense 45 minute writing session. This quite possibly accounts for the self confidence it exudes: even playing around with the dynamics to good effect.

‘Slump' may be a collection of songs held back from the previous Trust Club EP on grounds which are meaningful to the band & I respect that. However it's more of a diverse collection than perhaps they claim it is. Certainly I'm still at the stage in my own head of just enjoying each individual song on its own considerable merits: creating sorting criteria in distinguishing the two EPs from one another or the songs within this one, has not yet been achieved: the pace of release may play a part in that but I'm not sure that it's as important as the appreciations that I've already been able to reach…. I dare say patterns will occur to me on repeated plays. Which is no bad way to encourage me to keep on playing it.