the Middle Ones - Slow and Steady - CD (2012)

Labels: Discount Horse – Stitch-Stitch
Review by: MH

This is some lo-fi and folky indie pop from two girls based over Bristol way. “Slow and Steady” is their second album. It’s slightly downbeat on some of the songs and they do some nice harmonising over the sparse instrumentation. I say sparse but there is quite a range of instruments across the album including guitars, accordion, organ, clarinet and euphonium. I had no idea what a euphonium was but I looked it up and it’s a brass instrument that looks like a not-too-distant relative of the tuba. The sparsity is more that the instruments tend not to dominate the songs – it is more the vocals that are at the forefront. Generally the songs are quite simple and straightforward. I quite like it, although perhaps not every song. I am not so sure about the track “Monsters” in particular – it’s a little jarring, although I think that was the intention – to make it sound a bit eerie and scary (woooh!). I will certainly come back to a few of them like “After”, “Sam Said” and “I Liked You Straight Away”.