NEW SINGLE RELEASE – Rat-Tails ‘Coke in the 70s’
13 September 2023
Formerly known as Bloodhound, ‘A lover’s Mind’ marks the second single release for the band under their new name, and is arguably their most captivating release yet. With the band themselves describing the single as ‘having something two-faced about it’, the track most certainly represents that peculiar, tumultuous ebb and flow that is falling in love. It is a blending of the upbeat and the broody, the hopeful and the hopeless. After a moody, atmospheric opening instrumental, the first verse introduces a lover’s mind as a hub of disarray as Max proclaims: ‘I love you more than I love myself’, yet ‘all I get is lies’. It interrupts the romantic sentiment of giving oneself entirely to love, reframing it as something that is rather detrimental, a form of self-destruction. Paired with the generally grungy, fuzzy instrumental which alters its pace from slow to fast throughout the track, Slow Team paints love as discord, as the fantasy of perceiving this love through rose-tinted lenses begins to crack.
In a brief return to a more mellow verse, Lucy’s vocals haunt the layered, spacey instrumental as she echoes Max’s epiphany that love has never made him feel ‘so blind’. He finally understands that within this blind love, he has abandoned himself. The song then seems to burst open as it purges out the mellow and gives reign to the feral. A whirring, fuzzy bass accompanies the rumbling drums and grungy lead guitar, subtly fading in and out repeatedly. Mimicking a sort of physical pulsation, this undulation marks the moment the song truly comes alive. It marks the moment the band creates the space to feel entirely, subsequently allowing for catharsis. In a song which brings to the fore the disorder and non-linearity of falling in love, closing out the song on one singular, shaky note on the guitar grants the listener a final moment to process the chaos that came before it. It gives pause to simply remind us that love, to love, and to be loved, is inherently a turbulent, unpredictable process, hence we must be wary not to abandon ourselves within that process.
The sheer amount of passion and energy that is imbued throughout ‘A Lover’s Mind’ grows beyond the recorded track. Discussing performing the single live, the band note: ‘It takes everything we’ve got to play it live’. So, for the Slow Team fans up north, you can next catch the band giving it their all live either on the 11th of March at Oporto, Leeds, or on the 14th of March at Rough Trade, Nottingham. Southerners can catch the band throughout April, with performances at Boileroom, Guildford on the 23rd, and in Brighton on the 27th (venue TBC).
