Rebecca Taylor is probably best known as one half of British indie group, Slow Club, who are currently on hiatus. As Self Esteem, she has released one of the albums of the year and her tour to support it reaches Bristol tonight.
If you were paying attention to Slow Club, you would have seen Rebecca grow in confidence and ability with each album and tour. By their 4th album, there was a sense that she was being held back by the genre that they had perfected so well. Significant guest spots with Django Django and The Moonlandingz hinted at the versatility she had to offer.
Tonight, there is nothing holding her back (other than not being able to recover from tour drinking as quickly as her younger new bandmates as she jokes early on). The album, Compliments Please, is a gigantic pop record and performing it live gives her an opportunity to push her undeniably impressive voice to its limits.
She opens with one of the LP’s singles, Rollout. The band are all in T Shirts which say “Believe Women” and the powerful chorus “What I might have achieved / if I wasn’t trying to please” blasts through the boat. It is an immediate statement of intent – this is a formidable artist, in complete control of her music and unafraid to say what she feels as loudly as she is able to.
The stars of the gig are the vocals and the lyrics. It’s a painfully honest and relatable record and “the Self Esteem live experience” gives it the power and volume it deserves. The harmonies are so exceptional, they are reminiscent of vintage En Vogue in places. The classic girlgroup choreography is simple but effective; more Sugababes or The Supremes than Pussycat Dolls. It’s fun but never cheesy.
Rebecca and her band are clearly having a lot of fun tonight. Songs like The Best, In Time and Steady I Stand are impeccable pop bangers and they are presented as such. But there are also delicate moments of vulnerability, She Reigns is stripped back to show off those harmonies and the audience are entirely silent and attentive.
For the encore, Self Esteem take to the middle of the crowd to play the album highlight, I’m Shy, unplugged. One acoustic guitar and four beautifully matched voices close off one of the gig highlights of the year. The four women triumphantly embrace each other before dancing back out through the crowd to Nina Sky’s Move Your Body. Most of the crowd remain in the venue to dance to the track instead of the usual post gig shuffle to the exit. This was the perfect celebratory ending to a magnificent show which ensured everyone left with a huge smile.
