Pale Saints ‎– Slow Buildings

Slow Buildings is an odd one to throw away. Anyone revisiting the complete Pale Saints Discography will maybe notice a little bit missing from this album.

However much Ian Master purists might scoff this album as a waste; it was however one of my most cherished. If you look at the credits on previous Pale Saint's records, it does not say Ian Masters; it says Pale Saints. This band is a collective of creative musicians, and it lost and important original member, yet did not fail to impress me. This album has some of my favourite Meriel Barham vocals. The lyrics are fantastic, and it seems that each song uniquely passes on to the next, and there is something gracious and original about each song. Just the transition from the dark emotional song Henry into the catchy fuzzy-poppy Under Your Nose, was a whole level of bliss to me. Some of Slow Buildings stronger songs are the heart pounding get away song, Angel (Will You Be My), To the lengthy droney masterpiece Henry, to Slow Buildings final song, Suggestion, which turns off the light of the career and discography of Bliss rocks quickly forgotten band.

There is one final song that I must comment on in closing. That song is Fine Friend. Going back and listening to every Pale Saint album, this is the best song they have ever written (and by best I mean like Ride - Vapour Trail, excellent). What this shows to me was that Masters wasn't the only talent in the band, and the replacements had lots of fresh ideas that never got into the ears of the fans of apparently one musician out of a collective.

Slow Buildings, the third album from Pale Saints, suffered enormously from the loss of bassist and vocalist Ian Masters. Masters was also apparently the primary songwriter; without him, the band descends into generic mediocrity.