{"id":710449,"date":"2026-06-02T17:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T17:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/710449\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T17:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T17:34:08","slug":"slippers-slippers-08-album-review-simply-brilliant-indie-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/710449\/","title":{"rendered":"Slippers &#8216;Slippers 08&#8217; Album Review: Simply Brilliant Indie Pop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Everything seems to gravitate toward complication: centuries later, the tin-can telephone has become the iPhone, the sundial a smartwatch, and glasses polarized, self-recording spyware. Not that technological advancements can&#8217;t be incredible, but lately, and for quite some time now, everything has felt excessive. We&#8217;re always straining toward the future, which can create the impression that systems must grow more convoluted to become more sophisticated. Slippers 08, the sophomore album from LA-based musician Madeline Babuka Black, reminds me that the future doesn&#8217;t have to sound or feel complicated.<\/p>\n<p>Recording as Slippers, Black concocts crunchy jangle-pop gems that feel both fresh and familiar. Surf-rock guitars brush up against cucumber-cool vocal coos. Timeless laments nestle alongside shuffling percussion and steady kick drums. The music can sound simple while remaining lush, nuanced. Slippers 08 proves that the past, present, and future can collapse into one another at the heels of a great pop song.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Part of what makes Slippers 08 so refreshing is how little it seems interested in proving itself. Contemporary indie rock often arrives wrapped in layers of conceptual framing, genre fusion, or hyper-detailed production. Albums can feel obligated to advertise their ambition. Slippers works in the opposite direction. The songs on Slippers 08 don&#8217;t announce their sophistication; they reveal it gradually, through bubblegum melodies, sidewalk-chalk textures, and winsome repetition. What initially sounds effortless turns out to be carefully studied, drawing a line from early Beatles and Beach Boys records to later jangle-pop torchbearers like the Pastels.<\/p>\n<p>That tension between immediacy and craft runs throughout the album. The guitars are crisp and sunlit, drawing from decades of power pop and garage rock without becoming trapped in nostalgia. Black&#8217;s arrangements feel economical but never sparse. Every element serves its purpose. A vocal harmony appears exactly when a chorus needs lift. A guitar line curls around a melody before quietly disappearing. The record&#8217;s pleasures are rarely overwhelming, but they are persistent. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Black not only has a long career in music \u2014 currently playing in Le Pain and previously in Yucky Duster, Beverly, and Gobbinjr \u2014 but is also studying animation at the California Institute of the Arts. She&#8217;s cited Cartoon Network, based in her hometown of Atlanta, as an inspiration. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They always had a lot of indie bands in the fold there,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/lameorecords.com\/collections\/slippers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">she has said<\/a>. &#8220;I remember there was this Powerpuff Girls music compilation that had Devo and Apples In Stereo and Shonen Knife on it. My dad bought that for me and I just became obsessed with it.&#8221; Those influences are easy to hear. What&#8217;s equally clear is how Black&#8217;s songwriting adopts the sly wit of those beloved cartoons, the feeling of watching a children&#8217;s show when a piece of adult wisdom suddenly slips through the dialogue.<\/p>\n<p>Slippers 08 becomes such an addictive listen because Black is so adept at rooting deeper sentiments within infectious melodies. I keep replaying these short-and-sweet tracks not only because they&#8217;re like snacking on dry, sugary cereal, but because I become so enraptured by the songs that I nearly miss the darker linguistic alchemy Black is working with beneath the surface.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I said that I wanted you\/ I meant out of my life,&#8221; Black begins on the sprightly &#8220;Wants For Everyone,&#8221; flipping a doting sentiment into something liberating and wry. &#8220;When I said that I needed you,&#8221; she continues, &#8220;I was out of my mind.&#8221; Black has a gift for subtly twisting the stakes of a phrase. &#8220;Spend all your time\/ What you get back you won&#8217;t know,&#8221; she softly sings at the beginning of the saccharine, Beatles-esque ballad &#8220;Until You Can&#8217;t Give Up On Me.&#8221; The seemingly romantic chorus (&#8220;I will wait for you because the ground gave up on me&#8221;) almost distracts from those foreboding opening lines. The track is cosmic and kaleidoscopic, but mature feelings fuel its playfulness.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s most striking is the way Black treats familiarity. Much of Slippers 08 is built from recognizable materials: ringing guitars, understated rhythms, melodies that seem to arrive already half-remembered. Yet Black approaches these sounds as living tools rather than museum pieces. The result is music that acknowledges the past without becoming beholden to it. The record doesn&#8217;t revive an older style so much as continue a conversation that never really ended.<\/p>\n<p>Slippers 08 continues to establish that pop can be an antidote to monotony. \u201cI wake up another Sunday morning\/ I still never know what to do,\u201d Black sings over lethargic guitar strums and tumbling drums. The percussion is subtly caffeinated by tambourine hits. Maybe it\u2019s her airy vocals, or the casual jaunt of these songs, but Slippers 08 makes the ambiguity of life feel like a hand-drawn card, a gentle, sentimental push to keep going. The small ways of tripping through the day \u2014 picking up a \u201cmindless hobby like aromatherapy,\u201d losing your wallet and keys, disappearing under your sheets \u2014 become strangely meaningful, like quiet proof of life itself.<\/p>\n<p>Slippers 08 is out 6\/5 on Perennial.<\/p>\n<p>Other albums of note out this week:<br \/>Vince Staples&#8217; Cry Baby<br \/>Zoh Amba&#8217;s Eyes Full<br \/>Converge&#8217;s Hum Of Hurt<br \/>Modest Mouse&#8217;s An Eraser And A Maze<br \/>Death Cab For Cutie&#8217;s I Built You A Tower<br \/>Hammok&#8217;s When Does This Place Become Our Scene<br \/>Lizzo&#8217;s Bitch<br \/>Bedouine&#8217;s Neon Summer Skin<br \/>of Montreal&#8217;s aethermead<br \/>Widowspeak&#8217;s Roses<br \/>DJ Seinfeld&#8217;s If This Is It<br \/>horsegiirL&#8217;s NATURE IS HEALING<br \/>Slift&#8217;s Fantasia<br \/>Mal Not Bad&#8217;s Sophomore<br \/>Protect&#8217;s Slimdude2003 Mixtape<br \/>SIIICKBRAIN&#8217;s HOUNDSTOOTH<br \/>Jeff Goldblum &amp; The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra&#8217;s Night Blooms<br \/>Malcolm Todd&#8217;s Do That Again<br \/>Belushi Speed Ball&#8217;s Toxic Waste Was Everywhere In The &#8217;80s<br \/>Ella Hunt&#8217;s Blindspot<br \/>Thomas Bangalter&#8217;s Mirage &#8211; Ballet For 16 Dancers (1-8)<br \/>The Creem&#8217;s A Taste Of Cherry<br \/>Overpass&#8217; Elsewhere, Always<br \/>Jared Mattson &amp; Ruban Nielson&#8217;s FEAR<br \/>zzzahara&#8217;s Distant Lands<br \/>Laura Misch&#8217;s Lithic<br \/>Joe Holmes&#8217; Joe Holmes<br \/>Brockhoff&#8217;s Easy Peeler<br \/>The Tomoyuki Trio&#8217;s High Oxygen Blood<br \/>Yorghaki&#8217;s Antes de Que Sea Tarde<br \/>August Burns Red&#8217;s Season Of Surrender<br \/>Normans&#8217; Faust Demonica<br \/>A.A. Williams&#8217; Solstice<br \/>Dorian Electra&#8217;s Dorian Electra<br \/>Blood Incantation&#8217;s Announce All Gates Open (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)<br \/>Bella White&#8217;s A Sign In The Weather<br \/>Pleasure Systems&#8217; Leave It In The Sand<br \/>Paul Chamber Orchestra&#8217;s Prokofiev Re-Imagined<br \/>The Red Clay Strays&#8217; Grateful<br \/>The Handover&#8217;s New Old Medicine<br \/>Tender&#8217;s Where The Waves Break<br \/>Josh Ottum&#8217;s Yellowband<br \/>John R. Miller&#8217;s The Great Unknowing<br \/>100 Demons&#8217; Embrace The Black Light<br \/>SHINee&#8217;s Atmos Mini Album<br \/>Booker Stardrum &amp; Evan Shornstein&#8217;s OOPS!<br \/>WHO SHOT SCOTT&#8217;s Hairy<br \/>Sandscape&#8217;s Phenomenology<br \/>Satya&#8217;s Yellow House<br \/>Lee &#8220;Scratch&#8221; Perry &amp; Mouse On Mars&#8217; Spatial, No Problem<br \/>Machinedrum&#8217;s BL00MS Mini Album<br \/>Bye Parula&#8217;s Something Out Of Nothing<br \/>Poppy Ackroyd&#8217;s Liminal<br \/>Lukka&#8217;s Wendekind<br \/>Liz Lawrence&#8217;s Vespers<br \/>Jalen Ngonda&#8217;s Doctrine Of Love<br \/>Any Young Mechanic&#8217;s The Modern Shoe Is Ruining The Foot<br \/>Benny Bleu&#8217;s When I Am A Fossil<br \/>Rosa Walton&#8217;s Tell Me It&#8217;s A Dream<br \/>Midrift&#8217;s Silhouette<br \/>Caleb Caudle&#8217;s Heavy Thrill<br \/>Deer Tick&#8217;s Coin-O-Matic<br \/>Mekons&#8217; Horrorble (Mekons Vs Tony Maimone In Dub Conference)<br \/>Sylvain Chauveau&#8217;s The Complexity Of The Simple<br \/>Massimiliano Pagliara&#8217;s Selected Unreleased Works<br \/>Tara Clerkin Trio&#8217;s Somewhere Good<br \/>Tyler Sabbag&#8217;s Novella<br \/>Les Big Byrd&#8217;s Ruin Everything<br \/>Sierra Ferrell&#8217;s Live At Third Man Records<br \/>Beatrice M.&#8217;s Sinking<br \/>Seahaven&#8217;s Seahaven<br \/>Niall Horan&#8217;s Dinner Party<br \/>Sharada Shashidhar&#8217;s A Foot On The Ground<br \/>The Huntress And The Holder Of Hands&#8217; Babylon<br \/>Barry Manilow&#8217;s What A Time<br \/>Various Artists&#8217; Next Wave Acid Punx TROIS<br \/>Futurebirds&#8217; Far Out Country<br \/>Haylie Davis&#8217; Wandering Star<br \/>Vansire&#8217;s Taking Solace<br \/>Deaf Star&#8217;s Sunset Overdrive<br \/>Fightmaster&#8217;s Tolerance<br \/>Evergrey&#8217;s Architects Of A New Weave<br \/>Guilt Trip&#8217;s Armour Of Angels<br \/>Sparklmami&#8217;s In This Body<br \/>INAYAH&#8217;s Therapy Wasn&#8217;t Enough<br \/>Christopher Ardra&#8217;s Saw It In A Dream<br \/>Dwarves&#8217; JENKEM<br \/>Bad Stuff&#8217;s Bad Stuff<br \/>Purbayan Chatterjee &amp; Mark Lettieri&#8217;s Feathered Creatures<br \/>Evanescence&#8217;s Sanctuary<br \/>Jo Dee Messina&#8217;s Bridges<br \/>Oh Hiroshima&#8217;s And The Dead Tree Gives No Shelter<br \/>The Beaches&#8217; No Hard Feelings (Deluxe)<br \/>Clock DVA&#8217;s Thirst (45th Anniversary Edition)<br \/>Fitz And The Tantrums&#8217; Man On The Moon (The Galaxy Edition)<br \/>Attorneys General&#8217;s Live At Ftarri, Tokyo (With Tetuzi Akiyama And Elico Suzuki), Live At Pan-Pan, Birmingham (With Mark Sanders And Mark Hanslip), &amp; Live At Horse Hospital, London (with Tara Cunningham, Mike O\u2019Malley, And Alex McKenzie)<br \/>Electric Guest&#8217;s 10K (Deluxe)<br \/>Oscar Farrell&#8217;s Birds Fly In EP<br \/>daresay&#8217;s daresay EP<br \/>Terra Twin&#8217;s Scumbag EP<br \/>Beren&#8217;s Exuberance EP<br \/>Fucked Up&#8217;s Grass Can Move Stones Part 2: Year Of The Monkey EP<br \/>Charlotte MacInnes&#8217;s Highwater EP<br \/>mcgwn&#8217;s I\u2019M IN THE LIGHT HEARING SYMPHONIES EP<br \/>Tig3r Lewis&#8217;s Mr. Right Now EP<br \/>Big Special&#8217;s O\u2019JOY! EP<br \/>leetham&#8217;s Kink EP<br \/>Eilish Constance&#8217;s Singing For Fun EP<br \/>Isabel LaRosa&#8217;s Promising Young Woman EP<br \/>Soul Exchange&#8217;s Slow Descent EP<br \/>MEOVV&#8217;s Bite Now EP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everything seems to gravitate toward complication: centuries later, the tin-can telephone has become the iPhone, the sundial a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-710449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}