“Fever” Album Artwork
It’s funny: a band recording a collection of songs that so explicitly deals with themes of isolation, introspection, being caught in your own head only to have to sit on those tracks and delay their release due to a global pandemic and quarantine protocol that forced most people to take a little time to themselves. Point is, Slow Dress recorded the songs that would make up Fever, their new EP, right before COVID-induced quarantine went into effect in 2020. They made an EP that fit themes that everyone would be feeling in full effect before they even knew what was about to happen. For various reasons – including COVID as well as guitarist Bredon Jones’ cancer diagnosis – Slow Dress has had to sit on these tracks… until now.
Comprised of Jones, vocalist Katie Solomon, and bassist Zach Wulderk, Slow Dress had a background playing in Boston prior to their move to St. Louis. Together they play emotive indie rock tunes that enable Solomon to weave her lyrics of contemplative love, uncertainty, and insecurity. Recorded with producer Collin Pastore (Lucy Dacus, boygenius), the songs weren’t meant to encapsulate the quarantine mood, but some eerie power must have been at play during the writing process. Really, the duo was just trying to write about what was relevant to them personally at the time, not what would be affecting the world-at-large. According to Solomon, the band asks themselves, “How can we live our lives in meaningful ways? How can we navigate the pain, loss, and confusion that life brings?”
“Butterfly,” the EP’s opener, kicks things off with a delicate flurry of piano notes, establishing a metaphor of an insect stuck inside during a harsh winter. Solomon sings about hearing people outside, contemplating the various pathways of snow-imprinted footsteps, and says how she does not want to follow their footsteps. Sure, there’s an isolation to that, but there is also a self-reliance. Not to get too deep about the lessons quarantine (should have?) taught us, but there is an immense strength in this declaration of finding assuredness in the self even during times of duress and isolation.
Photo by Julia Mark
As the EP continues, “Switching Sides” lifts up the rhythmic energy of the EP while Solomon continues to dig into her lyrical style that will have listeners drafting a text to an ex in just a few short minutes. “I don’t want to be panicked,” she sings in the refrain, “I don’t want to be stuck in my mind, I don’t want to be distant, maybe I just need a little time.” It’s a track that seeks an answer to that tricky question of finding balance between the need for personal space and how it feels to really want someone who makes you feel understood.
Right in the middle of the EP comes “Back Into My Body,” which may take the plaudits as the EP’s standout track. There’s nothing complicated or overwrought here; a simple drum loop with distant piano notes and ambient flurries. But it’s a track that firmly establishes the self within physical form, giving a here and now to the introspection that is at play throughout the rest of the EP.
Stream Fever by Slow Dress below, or on the streaming service of your choice. You can purchase the album on Bandcamp.