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Debut Album ‘Divide’ Shows The Slang Climbing to New Heights

By Charlie Maybee

This reading of Alchemical Records content is to provide a multimedia experience for our audience while increasing the accessibility of our content to persons with hearing loss, low vision, dyslexia, physical or motor disabilities, or are on the autism spectrum.

One of D.C.’s newest alternative power-pop rock bands, The Slang, has just released their debut album Divide on September 24, and it is a banger. While the 10 songs span an impressive array of genre influences, a contemporary melodic rock drive is at the core of each song.

It’s worth highlighting the leading, titular single “Divide,” which starts off more spaciously with echoing guitar and breathy vocals. As the composition swells with synth induced ambience and sparse, booming bass drum hits, the lyrics point toward deconstructing a situation to see the pieces from a distance: “Divide / The pieces fallin’ / nothing to hide.”

Here the band encourages an abstract, macroscopic view so that we can see where problems lie in any given relationship. Despite the lyrical content stemming from moments of strain, the music oozes feel-good vibes that allow us to move through the discomfort and find space to grow. You can feel it in the immense, swelling sounds that often feel cinematic and activate a sense of retrospection.

Divide is a very clean EP that has an uplifting energy and offers varying changes in perspective. From the production to the songwriting and lyrical content, each song features a distinguished amount of care and empathy for its listener. The album shines brightly and casts light into the shadows of the divide so that we may be able to turn our breaking points into something stronger and new.

Divide can be streamed on all major streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube, and Deezer.

Charlie Maybee

Charlie Maybee is a dancer, musician, educator, and writer based in Charleston, South Carolina who currently teaches with the Dance Program at the College of Charleston. His primary work as an artist is with his performing collective, Polymath Performance Project, through which he makes interdisciplinary performance art that centers tap dance as the primary medium of expression and research. He also currently plays rhythm guitar for the Charleston-based punk band, Anergy, and releases music as a solo artist under the name Nox Eterna.

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