York indie-folk four-piece launch their full-length debut Show Me Bravery next Saturday 29 October at The Basement. We got an advance listen to the latest addition to York’s soundtrack.

By Graeme Smith

The first few notes of album opener and single Sweetest Oblivion immediately transports you back to early-to-mid-nineties alt-rock, with echoing guitar riffs and buttery vocals. However, this is no retro look-back. This is the 2016 reboot of the trend, made anew by York locals Everlate.

The four members of Everlate could be described as some of the hardest workers on the York music scene, often found on the corner of Spurrier Gate busking to finance their art. One must wonder how many afternoons they must have spent there to make Show Me Bravery happen, their first full length album and follow up to last year’s Vitals EP.

The band describe themselves as indie-folk and this is more apparent in track two, Landslides, chock full of folksy string plucking and toe-tapping rhythms. The theme carries into Wake Me Now. The pace dips in ballad Dead Stars and appropriates rises in Rise, one of the album highlights.

The other is, predictably, title track Show Me Bravery, a heart-rendering plea of a song that could bring a tear to the eye of the bravest among us.

Closer Safe House recalls the romanticism of Vitals, but there’s no suspicion that Everlate’s sound has grown stagnant. In every track, you detect not only a step up in production but also song writing in this full-length debut. With an album under their belt, it’s time to officially mark Everlate as one to watch. They’re facing stiff competition to be York’s next success story, but they’ve got the ability and the bravery to do it.

Everlate’s album launch party for Show Me Bravery takes place at The Basement on Saturday 29 October 2016, doors 7pm