Liam Frost And The Slowdown Family - Show Me How The Spectres Dance

  by Dixie Ernill

published: 18 / 8 / 2006

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Every once in a while an album comes along that seems to capture a period in my life so closely, that it becomes a haunting soundtrack. 'Show Me How The Spectres Dance' is just such an album, being rich with songs of love and loss and all the fears that go hand in hand with those emotions. When I reviewed one of their early singles, I suggested that more established local contemporaries, such as Stephen Fretwell, I am Kloot, Badly Drawn Boy and Elbow had better look over their shoulders as Liam Frost and the Slowdown Family were coming up fast on their collective tail. On the strength of this canon of songs it may be time for them to play ‘catch up’ already! Opening with current single, 'The City Is At Standstill', that hints at both the Divine Comedy and the Arcade Fire in its intro before Frost’s distinctly Mancunian vocal comes to the fore and the song speeds to the instant classic bracket, the album is up and running in fine style. Track two, the less immediate but equally impressive 'If Tonight We Could Only Sleep' is yet another example of Frost’s beguiling songwriting-way-beyond-his-years talent. Quality debut single, 'She Painted Pictures', that caused quite a stir on its limited release at the start of the year is next up, before arguably the album’s masterpiece, 'The Mourners of St Paul’s', is allowed to build to a spine –tingling atom bomb of a song that will simply slay you. It is hard for the rest of the album to follow such a song, but it is again testament to Frost’s undeniable craftsmanship that the obvious urge to skip back to the fourth track is suppressed. The remaining songs may be more fragile and showcase the more understated side of the band’s output, but there remains real beauty in the way such simple tunes are weaved round such stunningly awe inspiring collections of words. The final two tracks, 'Shall We Dance' and 'Try Try Try' round off proceedings in breathtaking fashion with lines such as “My eyes are open wide/ I’ve seen some things that might surprise/ and all the ghosts I chase across this land/ won’t leave my troubled mind” and “The nagging sense of infancy pulling at your sleeve”. Right now this is the most vital album I own. I like it, I like it a lot and I know that very soon I will love it.

Track Listing:-

1 The City Is At Standstill
2 If Tonight We Could Only Sleep
3 She Painted Pictures
4 The Mourner's Of St Paul's
5 This Is Love
6 Is This Love?
7 Paperboats
8 Roadsigns And Red Lights
9 Shall We Dance
10 Try Try Try

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