Moving back from the slow, stark
Wilderness,
Brett Anderson nevertheless maintains a gentle touch on
Slow Attack, his third album and first full-fledged independent release. Strangely,
Slow Attack feels less indie than
Wilderness, largely due to the gorgeous, subtly layered arrangements, anchored by quiet, insistent pianos augmented by creeping cellos and murmuring guitars. Despite these muted colors, the album plays more like the sustained mood piece of
Wilderness than his appealingly mannered eponymous debut, with the songs easing into the next, never breaking a sweat and rarely calling attention to themselves, but unlike his sophomore set this doesn’t require much heavy lifting from the listener: it’s reserved but welcoming, a mellow meditation that never gets too melancholy.