It’s fair to say that Sylvette aren’t best known for their restraint. They’re usually leapfrogging from one time signature to another, ideas stacked on ideas. It’s what makes them such an exciting band.
So, when they announced that their new single would be ‘singer-songwriter’ inspired, and those ever-frightful words ‘a bit different’, I sat up from my armchair and damn near dropped my brandy.
In reality though, I wasn’t in the least bit shocked. When have Sylvette ever sat still? Or been complacent? Listening to ‘Blanket Of Dust’, with its fiddly acoustic guitars and tempestuous plucked strings, it becomes clear that Sylvette have found yet another world to conquer.
A compelling, intimate portrait of a man strangled by inhibition, ‘Blanket Of Dust’ packs its emotional punch into a tight three or so minutes. In simple terms, the track is about how joy and pain form life’s yin and yang. It’s a hypnotic piece. The build is slow and deliberate, the vocals pinning us in place.
In parts, it reminds me of the gentler cuts Everything Everything attempted on ‘Arc’. However, where Everything Everything treated the downtempo moments on similarly titled ‘The House Is Dust’ as an afterthought, Sylvette commit to the mood of the acoustic arrangement, maintaining hints of their usual knotty stylings but riding out the tide.
The best moment is the middle eight. The strings spiral and envelop the track, Sinclair’s vocals swell and crumble; ‘One day like this is worth a thousand / Sitting in an armchair reading about this’. It drives home the emotional core of the song, it resolves the cyclical build of the arrangement, and to my ears it’s the best emotional payoff of any Sylvette track thus far.
So yes, ‘Blanket Of Dust’ is lovely. Yes, it is very different, but it’s an equally compelling side of the band, and one I hope we see more of. But then again, knowing that Sylvette are the musical equivalent to a twenty-sided dice, where they next land is anyone’s guess.
Words by Jay Plent