Formed in 2006, with their debut album released in ’09,Slow Club seems to be the sort of small indie-folk band you’d see playing at tiny coffee shop venues in London. They’ve got a smooth sound that I’m almostat a loss of words to describe. It’s the sort of indie sound that is really at the base of every indie rock artist’s music; Slow Club seems to have just made that base into a great sounding genre that’s almost all their own.
The song “Beginners” is one of soulful harmonized crooning betwixt the two members, Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor, backed by an interesting mix of instrumental sound. “Beginners” seems to be about a hard breakup but the terrible sadness and anger of the topic is made so clear by twothings: the beautiful poetic way in which the lyrics are delivered, and the subject of the video Daniel Radcliffe.
You may have thought you saw Radcliffe’s displays of anger and passion in one of the recent Harry Potter films but you haven’t seen it really until it’s in the context of this music video. Waking up in a bar, it’sclear Radcliffe has had a rough time and as he mouths the words to Slow Club’s brilliant song, and he stalks around the bar, it becomes clear what’s troubling him.
The sadness is clear in every move the man makes and the passion of the song is shown in the way he mouths the lyrics like a man with a broken heart. At one point, while Rebecca sings “Oh, I’ve told you, oh, to be older.You know I’m right”, Dan hits a pole and then rests his forehead on hit and it’sa moment where I really felt the emotion of the song.
What with the unique, fuzzy quality to the instruments,the combination of male and female voices singing, and Daniel Radcliffe’s performance, the “Beginners” video is a true triumph. What’s even more surprising is: this video was shot in one take. “Beginners” is off Slow Club’s latest album Paradise, released in September of 2011. If you live in the UK you can catch this duo as they tour this summer. Don’t miss it.