Fast-forward a few months, after some personnel changes, Uniforms signed to the new Spanish label, Oso Polita and their debut album, 'Polara', was recorded and released. I should explain that this review for 'Polara' is a rather late, but that's mainly due to some comedic ineptitude on my part. Read on...
The record label sent me a physical copy of the album and it took a little time to arrive in the post, all the way from Spain, but when it did arrive I was slightly amazed to have been sent a delicious vinyl copy. That was a lovely gesture, but there was one small problem - my record player had been stored away in the attic about 20 years ago. No worries, very keen to play the album, I soon scrambled into the attic and retrieved my record player. Next issue: the record player was fine, but it needed a new stylus! After searching online, I managed to track down the correct stylus and placed an order (£17 - ouch!!).
About 3 weeks went by and the stylus still hadn't arrived, so I contacted the store and was advised that it hadn't been sent due to a bereavement in the family. However, the stylus was finally shipped and arrived a few days later. Now here's where the comedy kicks in; it was only when the stylus arrived that I actually opened the shrink-wrap covering the vinyl album. When carefully removing the vinyl, I could feel something extra within the sleeve....oh yes, hahaha, much to my amusement, there inside the sleeve was a copy of the album on compact disc! I had gone to all that effort to play the vinyl when I could have simply been playing the cd all along. So many weeks wasted. Anyway, that's the backstory to my delay in reviewing 'Polara', let's move on and talk about the music.
The first thing I noticed about 'Polara' is that when Uniforms have re-recorded some of their tracks (Don't Wake Up, Gris, Addicted, Perlas) from that original 'Equals' EP, rather than sanitize them, they have actually retained, and in some cases, increased the wonderful raw edges. That is a marvellous approach, they could have easily fallen for the mistake of over-producing those gems and smoothing away all the danger. Thankfully, there are still plenty of noisy, angular, shimmering guitars amongst the pounding percussion - the dynamics have improved, but the original character lives on.
I remember initially describing Uniforms sound as "raw but beautiful", that's where they have really come along tremendously - the new tracks are a delight, they have taken that jagged starting point and augmented it with extra swirl, swagger and colour. Throughout the album they perfectly caress your ears with warm, honest sensuality whilst sometimes digging you in the ribs with playful gusto. Everything locks and interweaves with vibrancy and confidence, sometimes emotional, sometimes powerful, Uniforms have created an album of guitar-based mastery interwoven with sublime synths and textural vocals. Each track works as part of the whole and as a final treat, there's the title track 'Polara'. This is an absolutely joyful explosion of golden sunlight to send you on your way. Epic. No wonder we play them so much on our radio show!
Top Tracks: Polara, Perlas, Addicted.
Label: Oso PolitaLinks: | Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify |