Cloth – Pink Silence – clashmusic.com

There aren’t many bands like Cloth. The Glasgow duo – made up of twin siblings Rachael and Paul Swinton – have a knack for being simultaneously dynamic and intimate. Soft vocals, gritty guitars and abstract rhythms pepper across their previous 2023 album ‘Secret Measure’, released on Mogwai’s Rock Action label, which rightly gained critical acclaim for its distinct strain of gently addictive guitar pop. Now at their third outing ‘Pink Silence’, the formula remains much the same. But with a few extra creative minds in the mix this time round, Cloth’s latest music flourishes all the more.
Rachael’s hushed vocals set the hypnotic aura from the opening title track, influenced lyrically by the transient moments of dawn and dusk, and their capacity to feel both soothing and foreboding. ‘Polaroid’ is one of the album’s stand-outs, pulsing with driving rhythms and jagged guitars that lay the base for collaborator and composer Owen Pallett’s subtle, yet perfectly textured string arrangement to soar.
The second half of the album features more of Pallett’s deft string touches. These include ‘Burn’, inspired partly by Sharon Van Etten’s ‘Remind Me Tomorrow’, acceptance imbued album closer ‘Write It Down’, as well as the beautifully stripped back ‘The Cottage’, with Pallett’s glorious strings shining in tandem with the track’s sentiment of cherishing loved ones.
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Another key outside figure brought into the mix is Portishead’s Adrian Utley. His synths on the latter mentioned track are minimal, yet full of colour. The guitars on ‘I Don’t Think So’ burst buoyantly into shoegaze territory at its choruses, while ‘Stuck’ emanates the brightest glows of Portishead’s influence with its moody undercurrent and flowing guitars, which Paul and Rachael describe as “moving mountains” in the way they undulate and grow across the song.
Binding all of these sounds together is one of the album’s most important creative collaborators, producer Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Katy J Pearson, Sorry). His advice to the band to “let go” when it came to making their latest music stuck with them resolutely. It can be heard in Paul’s lyrics (the duo’s chief lyricist), notably in tracks such as ‘Golden’, where the imagery feels more vivid than ever: “That scar on my wall / Where all of the photographs remembered us falling”. But when the lyrics are carried by Rachael’s feather-light vocals, it’s here where the magic blooms, and where you can catch the closest glimpse into Cloth’s wholly symbiotic nature.
Where ‘Secret Measure’ highlighted Cloth’s capabilities as a duo, ‘Pink Silence’ occupies a richer, more expansive space; more cinematic, yet still tangibly tender. 
7/10
Words: Jamie Wilde
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