‘HEAVY JELLY’ is the first album released by SOFT PLAY, the new name for Kent based punk duo Slaves, who Laurie Vincent (Guitar) and Isaac Holman (Drums and Vocals) released three albums under. It’s a much heavier sound than we’re used to hearing from the band, and with songs about spilling bin juice over your kitchen floor and another written from the perspective of a worm crawling around on the pavement, it’s a delightfully absurd album that feels more like a fresh start than a return to form.
Their comeback single, ‘Punk’s Dead’, is a direct response to the social media backlash they received to their name change, and it’s absolutely electric. Robbie Williams makes a surprise appearance on the middle eight, his vocals interspersed with comments made against their name change The lyric “Soft Play? More like Soft Cunts!” is already proving to have left an impact, with fans adopting the name Soft Cunts as a playful nickname for the duo, effectively shutting down any attempt to use the term as an insult towards the band. It’s clearly a song made to be heard live, with Laurie and Isaac already delivering electric performances of it at Download Festival and Glastonbury.
A standout of the album has to be ‘Working Title’, a song about the experience of over doing it on cocaine and other various illicit substances on a night out, and the eventual dependency that can lead to. It’s equal parts funny as it is totally bleak, painting a miserable picture of the morning after a drug binge. The album takes a sharp left turn on its final track, ‘Everything and Nothing’, a song about both musicians’ personal experiences with grief. It’s so much more stripped back and personal than any other songs we’ve heard on this album so far, with Holman delivering raw vocals over the mandolin and string instrumental. It’s an incredibly raw piece about grief and loss, only made more impactful by the songs that precede it. It’s a truly bittersweet finish to the album and feels like the right place to be leaving the listener.
‘HEAVY JELLY’ is available across all streaming now.