Whilst pootling about around Sheffield’s Get Together day-festival a few months back, myself and a friend stumbled into a set by London-based duo STRABE, Angelica and Emmet. Their slightly folky-take on indie disco-pop caught my ear, particularly as the set got deeper and they started trying out more recent unreleased material, and I made a note to keep an ear on them in future. Turns out that my habit of hitching onto bandwagons right as they are inches away from station departure has struck again, since STRABE have just announced their debut album, How Our Love Grows, due for release on 20th October.
Whilst not the lead single – earlier 2023 loosies “All My Heart” and “Memories” also make up the 12-track song-list – the new drop “Honey” is the one which provides the album’s title. A lovely, contented mirrorball of a song with pleasingly squelchy synth chords I always have a real soft spot for, subtle disco-flick guitars, and Angelica’s vocals gliding over the track. Whilst reminiscent the midtempo Carly Rae Jepsen Dedicated cuts and the ballad-ier moments on Alison Goldfrapp’s latest, I find “Honey” most puts me in mind of early-10s indie-pop on the blogs when bands were starting to realise that pop and dance-y synths weren’t things to sprint away from. Given that I’m significantly closer to the decade anniversary of my starting university than I feel comfortable with, this is the kind of nostalgia rush I can get behind. Give it a spin below.
How Our Love Grows is out on 20th October via [PIAS] Recordings.
