Slow Pulp: Yard [ANTI]

Why you'll love it

The Chicago band's second album and first for Anti-, ten songs that run from fuzzed-up guitar pop to a bare piano ballad. "Cramps," "Slugs," "Doubt" and "Broadview" all came out as singles, and the record sent them out with The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie.

This edition

• Anti- pressing (cat# 88008)
• Ten tracks, five a side

About the album

Slow Pulp began in Madison, Wisconsin, as childhood friends Teddy Matthews, Alex Leeds and Henry Stoehr, and found their voice when Emily Massey joined in 2017 and swapped from backing vocals to lead. Their debut, Moveys, was half recorded when the pandemic hit and finished remotely, and it was good enough to get them on the road with Death Cab for Cutie, Pixies and Alvvays.

Yard was made the same intimate way, partly at the home studio of Massey's father, who knew the songs and their subjects about as well as anyone could. It deals in isolation and learning to be comfortable with yourself, and it sounds like it: "weepy Americana," a raw piano ballad and belt-along pop-punk side by side, with Stoehr's "Slugs" written about a sixth-grade crush. It is a record that rewards repeat visits, like a good back yard.

Tracklist

Listen

Out September 29, 2023 on Anti- (cat# 88008).