The Pastels
Slow Summits

We cannot fail to welcome yet another return of the Scottish "The Pastels". Old friends that we occasionally meet along our path.

Now reduced to a duo, STHEPHEN Mc ROBBIE and KATRINA MITCHELL have been delighting us for about 30 years with sparse releases always worth noting. An essential influence for English indie pop music and beyond. Ask the countless SARAH, CREATION bands, the Scottish C 86 scene or the now veteran Belle And Sebastian.

They do not change course in "Slow Summits", same fragile melodies bordering on twee pop, "CHECK MAY HEARL", sung by a shy and off-key voice, that of STHEPHEN Mc ROBBIE.

Time passes for everyone, now produced by JOHN Mc ENTIRE, aided by Rococo Rot, by NORMAN BLAKE from the Scottish pop institution Teenage Fanclub. The songs are dressed with new sounds, a patina of electronics, brass, organs, but the substance does not change, they have not denatured themselves in search of a supposed modernity. They are now adults and have simply updated their attire, but underneath they are the same naive Pastels, whom we remember singing "BABY HONEY", with a few more wrinkles.