The increase is no great surprise; Spanish Love Songs are able to cultivate entire worlds across an album but they are also a flawless singles band. Ahead of ‘No Joy’ they debuted ‘Haunted’; from the opening refrain, “you pulled off the road so you could cry”, it became clear that the gloom remained albeit underpinned with a buoyant synth-led riff. Elsewhere among the golden clutch of pre-singles, ‘Clean-Up Crew’ saw a rare dabble with a sense of optimism as Slocum admitted “I start to believe that we could make it”. While this might be a comment on the grey-tinged life moments the band tend to document, it could also be a fair comment on the direction the band are now heading; this reality is a far cry from “pushing thirty and still playing house shows” like the background to (eventual breakout) ‘Schmaltz’ back in 2018.
As already mentioned, the rooms being visited on this occasion are far bigger than Spanish Love Songs have headlined here before; with their doomed anthems and relentless forward motion, we can’t see where the growth ends. If your local show hasn’t already sold out, we recommend picking up a ticket before the venues triple in size again on their next visit.