Opener ‘You’ feels like being greeted by an old friend. Back is Carly Comando’s beautiful, distorted keyboard tone and Tom Patterson’s pounding drums. Comando’s voice feels even stronger than before, more confident and more brave, taking succesful risks with delivery.
Comando’s keyboard contains warmth and depth, penetrating right into your heart. Her voice is strong, sounding like a cross between Taylor Swift and Hayley Williams at times, especially on ‘Lewlyweds’. Slingshot Dakota slay at both high and low tempos. ‘Stay’ is a beautiful, dark, slow moving banger, but then it kicks in and Patterson hammers those drums like he hates them, Slingshot Dakota showing just how versatile they are.
‘Paycheck’, the first song released from the record, is the band at their best, an insanely catchy chorus that fills your heart with joy and sticks in your head for days. ‘Break’, as a record, does a great job of capturing the energy of Slingshot Dakota when they play live, particularly Patterson’s drumming. The toms especially sound huge on this record, and this big leap in production quality massively helps this record stand out as the band’s best. The closing title-track is beautiful, a perfect example of how great Comando and Patterson are at writing ballads.
A husband-and-wife duo, there’s a real sense of connection and emotion in all of Slingshot Dakota’s songs and this is never more true than in this record. ‘Break’ is a wonderfully emotional record from a band we are lucky to have. It’s their best, most rounded and accomplished effort yet.
CONOR MACKIE