Michael Slawter - Assassination

Michael Slawter has been on the indie power pop scene for over a decade, fronting the excellent The Saving Graces and Niedermeyer and now he joins us on this wonderful solo outing, entitled "An Assassination Of Someone You Knew". "Slawter clearly holds a doctorate in the dialect of pop. From the opening cut, "Count T0 10", a buoyant love devotional awash in cross-cutting strums and a tune that could pass for one of Tommy KeeneÂs great anthems, through album closer "Crashing Down", a break up song with Searchers-style jangles and luminous harmony vocals, the album transports me back and makes me feel things I havenÂt felt in ages. All the women IÂve known - puppy loves, passionate affairs, unrequited romances, even passing fantasies - seem to find their own soundtracks here. ThereÂs the rock chick who poses and pouts in front of the mirror playing guitar to T. Rex records in power pop chugger "She Thinks SheÂs Cool" and thereÂs the sophisticate who steals the singerÂs soul, love at the first site, in the Windbreakers-like "Leave Her Alone". ItÂs remarkable how Slawter, with a sweet, urgent vocal style and a knack for memorable riffs and classic arrangement, draws those feelings out of me. He was previously spotted in The Saving Graces, a tight power pop unit of whom, in my enthusiasm, I probably uttered a cliché or two. I do recall leading off a review of their last record with the question, "Who said sell-crafted, heartfelt jangly pop was a dying artform?" (Raise your hand if you spot the clichés) The same rhetorical query could be proposed for The Assassination Of Someone You Knew. But IÂll let another critic tackle that one. This time, I just wanted to write from the heart."-Fred Mills, Magnet. A truly high-brow event that challenges the ear and heart at all turns, Extremely Highly Recommended.

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