Slow Pulp Break Down New Album Yard Track by Track: Exclusive

Cielo Perez
·7 min read

The post Slow Pulp Break Down New Album Yard Track by Track: Exclusive appeared first on Consequence.

Track by Track is a recurring feature series in which artists guide readers through every song on their latest release. Today, Slow Pulp take us through their new record Yard.

Today (September 29th), Chicago quartet Slow Pulp return with their sophomore album Yard.

Featuring Emily Massey on vocals, Alex Leeds on bass, Teddy Matthews on drums, and Henry Stoehr on guitar and production, Yard builds on the guitar-forward dream-pop of Slow Pulp’s 2020 album Moveys. But now equipped with an even deeper level of trust between themselves in the years since, the band use Yard as an opportunity to showcase their broader influences within indie rock, infusing their sound with gritty punk, piano balladry, and folksy twang.

Massey’s vocals also sound more confident on Yard, especially on the single “Broadview,” a bittersweet country ballad that encapsulates late-night summer love. “This song is about letting yourself fall in love for the first time in a long time,” Massey says of the track in a press release. “After being hurt in previous relationships I was trying to decide if making the jump was worth it. Turns out it was.”

Learning to love oneself in isolation is an overall theme throughout Yard, but Slow Pulp also acknowledge the value of finding support in each other. “Part of what we discovered — or what Emily discovered — is taking that time to be intentionally isolated is really important, as is being more collaborative at other times. We’ve learned a lot about balancing and being intentional about that through this process,” Leeds says.

Get Slow Pulp Tickets Here

Listen to Slow Pulp’s Yard below, followed by Massey’s Track by Track breakdown of the project. You can also grab tickets to their remaining tour dates here.

“Gone 2”: 

This song is about wanting someone to express their love to you, even though you aren’t ready to do the same. We had recorded an entirely different version of this song, but it didn’t seem to exist in the right world production wise. So a couple of days before we were supposed to turn in the album we re-recorded it while watching The Red Hot Chili Peppers music video for “Scar Tissue” on a loop. It seemed to be the perfect fuel to reimagine the song into this almost dry and desolate space.

“Doubt”: 

In my process to fight against self depreciation, I found this strange new pattern popping up where I fished for critiques from others.  I wanted people close to me to validate the things I hated about myself. Self doubt had found a home in me, it felt safer to stay in this familiar negative space than to like myself. I thought If others shared that with me I wouldn’t have to do the work to change. I thought it was fun to have the lyrics and vocal delivery juxtapose with how upbeat the instrumental is. I wanted it to almost have this slacker quality to it. A slacker who also loves wakeboarding or something.

“Cramps”: 

Searching for things you wish you had in other people. Creating this character in your head that has all the physical and emotional attributes you feel that you are lacking. But really at the end of the day your self hatred can be chalked up mostly to pms. The song came out of a jam at practice right after I had proclaimed that my period cramps were particularly bad that day. We don’t normally write songs in their earlier stages on the spot like this one. I have an extra affinity to this song because it lined up so collaboratively for us.

“Worm”: 

Our bassist Alex wrote this one. I felt super excited to be able to sing it on the album. The song is about being overwhelmed by the feeling of uncertainty in the early days of a new relationship, where all your thoughts end up leading to them.      

“Slugs”: 

“Slugs,” put simply, is about falling in love in the summertime. The song lives in that place where the newness and freshness of getting to know someone turns into a tinge of fear because you realize how much you have come to care about them. I tend to get so overtaken in feelings of uncertainty or impermanence when it comes to relationships. Probably due to having rocky foundations or complications in them in the past. But suddenly, for the first time, I found myself in something that felt safe, with healthy attachment and mutual admiration, and the inevitability of uncertainty became more easily accepted.

It’s that understanding of letting the future run its course, and allowing yourself to hold that care and love no matter the outcome. The first iteration for this song was written by Henry while he was in middle school, and I think was maybe the first song he ever wrote. First titled “Imagination,” it coincidentally was also about a summer crush. I think it’s so sweet that the song found this full circle moment in the timelessness of different types of firsts in love.

“Yard”: 

This song was written after Henry sent me a guitar part while I was at the cabin on one of my writing trips. It was one of those instances where the lyrics and melody all came out at once. My parents had put up my childhood home for sale and I had just come from visiting for the last time. Being there in that moment made me reflect mostly on my little sister and I’s relationship while we grew up there. The song turned into an apology for being pretty absent and self absorbed while she was in her most formative years. It is the point where I finally tell her I’m proud of her, that I am sorry, and that I am here now.           

“Carina Phone 1000”:           

I was at the cabin feeling really isolated and lonely, and kind of spiraling in my head. I didn’t want people to reach out to me, so that I’d have uninterrupted writing time. But I found myself longing for that. Then, like clockwork, my best friend Carina gave me a call, it’s like they had telepathy or something. They have had a million different phone numbers over the years so their contact in my phone is Carina Phone 1000. And it felt like a life buoy being thrown out to me when I saw their name on my phone. The song is about that call.

“Broadview”: 

This song is about letting yourself fall in love for the first time in a long time. After being hurt in previous relationships I was trying to decide if making the jump was worth it. But realizing that it’s always worth it to at least give it a try.

“Mud”: 

Knowing that the end is near in a relationship. That you weren’t the right fit for someone because they are finding something better in someone else. In the resistance of letting it end,  you create delusions about how it still could work out. But ultimately realize that it will be better for you too if you let them go. MUD stands for miss u dear, a line I kept repeating after I realized I had missed seeing the full moon while I was up in wisconsin.

“Fishes”: 

This song was written after my last therapy session with a therapist I loved before my health insurance changed when I turned 26. Also written at the cabin, this song fully came out in one piece while I was staring at a fish hung up on the wall and listening on repeat to Lucinda Williams’ album Essence. It’s about finally feeling ready to choose myself, to find love for myself and to stop searching for it solely in others.

Slow Pulp Break Down New Album Yard Track by Track: Exclusive
Cielo Perez

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