Pastel are a 5-piece guitar band, fronted by Droylsden (Manchester) cousins Jack Yates (singer) & James Yates (guitar) with Liam O’Shea (Bass), Joe Anderson (guitar) & Rhys Wheeler (drums). They’ve spent the summer forging their status as one of the most exciting bands in a generation, supporting Oasis legend Liam Gallagher on his biblical Knebworth shows and a date in Cardiff – becoming Liam’s new favourite band in the process.
They‘ve released 3 singles across 2022 (amassing a massive 147k Spotify streams) all of which feature on the Isaiah EP, which is set for release on Friday 21st October.
Here’s our track by track preview of one of the years most hotly anticipated EPs.
Isaiah starts off the EP and it’s an emotive reflection of a tumultuous upbringing and encapsulates everything that Pastel excel at.
The song is a hazy shoegazing masterpiece, with intricate guitar hooks and sonorous strings, demonstrating that they are willing to push their anthemic sound into different avenues and to unlock their potential even further.
S.O.H.O. is a juggernaut of a track and evokes memories of 90s indie dance music. The guitar riffs are John Squire-esque, before it’s breakdown explodes back into life, with an outro that oozes class and will always be a hit whenever and wherever it’s played.
Guitarist James Yates says, “This EP feels like a step up, like we’re growing musically and expanding on our sound! It’s everything we’re about. Trippy and chilled out with a proper deep groove to it. No other young British band is doing anything nearly as good, and we cannot wait for things to pop off in 2023 when our debut album drops.”
With it’s sweeping guitar riffs, Escape sounds like peak Verve and is a dreamy psychedelia anthem that brings an air of both nostalgia and optimism.
Two Fools is the only track that hasn’t had a studio release until now. As the saying goes, save the best ’till last and Pastel have done exactly that! It’s an absolute monster of a tune, with spiralling guitar riffs and a spacey acoustic passage before these epic guitar riffs take over and spiral into a great ending.
Isaiah is a truly great EP, full of groove, swirling guitars and contains the type of anthems that you’ll be singing at the top of your voice, with your arms around your mates.
With several gigs pencilled in for early 2023, including a gig at the iconic 100 Club in London (see you there), along with their debut album being released, the time is now for Pastel to take over the world.
Isaiah is released on Friday 21st October and will be available across all of the usual streaming and download platforms. A limited edition run of the EP was sold out online within minutes of going on sale, further reinforcing the belief that Pastel are on the verge of the big time.
ThisIsTheMusic 
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