Slow Hollows Get Heartfelt with 'Actors'
by Erin Christie
The latest Slow Hollows project, Actors, opens on a somber note: with the soft brass lullaby, reminiscent of the elevator music you might hear in a picturesque hotel lobby. Slow Hollows—comprised of Austin Anderson (vox/ guitar), Aaron Jassenoff (bass), Jackson Katz (drums), and Daniel Fox (trumpet)—set the scene as they draw you in; from the gate, it’s clear that their third full-length record is emotionally-packed and unapologetically so.
“Do you love me, or do you love the feeling?” Anderson implores on the single, “Two Seasons,” drawing upon feelings of insecurity and unease. The track closes on a classic lo-fi hallmark, a distorted personal conversation wherein the speaker reflects on ‘animalistic’ frustration, regret, and anger. Much of this record explores the complexities of human relationships and the emotions that accompany such and it’s that sense of vulnerability that makes this release feel like a massive step forward in the vein of honest expression.
This is the band’s first full-length release since 2016. With such a significant gap between releases, it’s certain they’ve had a decent amount of time to mull over what they want to write, what they want to tell the world. For Anderson, who takes the lead in songwriting, this LP is a chance to be more open, to experiment, to feel unafraid—in a large way, that has been achieved through not only lyrical content, but also production-wise.
One of the record’s first singles, “You Are Now On Fire,” is a dance hit in the making, including brilliant trumpet-playing from Fox, 80s-inspired synths, and bright, bouncy instrumentation. “I wanted to write a pop song, but I was really scared of being judged for doing something like that…[“You Are Now On Fire” is] one of my favorites on the record, because I was scared of it at one point, but I eventually embraced it,” said Anderson in an interview with office. His hesitance is understandable—change is scary—but in venturing further into the realm of indie-pop (emphasis on the pop), singles such as this mark a daring change in direction for the group and it appears effortless, almost natural.
“Heart,” another pop anthem, describes the tumultuous emotions accompanying romantic love, and it’s one of the tracklist’s most powerful inclusions. It is later stripped down to its bare bones as the album’s concluding track, a reprise, exhibiting brass, soft keys, and a heartfelt sentiment. “I recover, knowing you’re the only one,” Anderson hums, and it feels like a secret that we aren’t meant to hear.
Amidst the high-energy, reverb-heavy hits such as “Heart,” “Blood,” and “You Are Now on Fire,” Actors is equally as speckled with soft-handed acoustic earworms, adding a nice balance to the mix. Anderson’s voice shines against a more subtle instrumental backdrop on “Hell,” one of the record’s most beautiful inclusions, for example. Later into the tracklist, the subtle implementation of keys on “Cowboy” is reminiscent of snow falling in flurries and landing on the sidewalk, only to melt moments later.
Slow Hollows’ first record, Atelophobia, was released in 2015 (when Anderson was just barely out of high school). Since then, it’s clear that both he and the rest of the band have done a lot of soul-searching, and Actors is the result of that. After all, it’s been almost five years: in that amount of time, you grow, experience, and endure a lot, both physically and emotionally—in that sense, this record has a knowing sense of maturity to it, one tinged with self-discovery and an unabridged openness.
Actors tells a cohesive story of growth through painting various portraits, each from the same perspective—that of Anderson. It doesn’t shy away from the ups and downs involved in the experiences described, from the honeymoon phase of a relationship depicted in “Heart” to “Posture,” which describes the painful process of urging yourself to look ahead when something falls apart. Many of the tracks are directed toward an unintroduced “you”—in releasing something as brutally confessional as this, likely with a specific listener in mind apart from their fanbase, that has to be nerve-wracking. With the vulnerability of the content, that’s enough to consider this record praise-worthy, let alone how amazingly beautiful the instrumental backdrop is.
When listening to the record all the way through, you can’t help but lose yourself in the music, in the story they’re spinning. Holistically, this record is a triumph for what could be called one of the most influential Tumblr-era indie acts of their time. Unlike actors, who assume a given role and later returns to themselves when out of character, Slow Hollows aren’t acting when it comes to their raw delivery, and it’s that genuineness that makes this record all the more meaningful.