Glasgow’s The Pastels will return with their first album in fifteen years, Slow Summits, due out on Domino Records May 27th. To celebrate, the band released the single “Check My Heart” earlier today. The Pastels have remained active in the intervening years having released the film soundtrack for The Last Great Wilderness in 2003, some theatre pieces for 12 Stars, as well as musical collaborations with Japan’s Tenniscoats for the Two Sunsets LP in 2009. Slow Summits was recorded in Glasgow by John McEntire and Bal Cooke, and later mixed in Chicago by McEntire (The Sea and Cake, Tortoise, The Red Krayola). The album features the band’s core line-up of Stephen McRobbie, Katrina Mitchell, Tom Crossley, Gerard Love, Alison Mitchell and John Hogarty, as well as guest appearances that include original members Annabel Wright (Aggi) and Norman Blake. “Check My Heart” has all the elements of a great Pastels’ song: rhythmic, elegant, jangle pop displaying the underpinnings of 60’s garage, as well as a sort of romantic back-and-forth between Katrina Mitchell’s sunny vocal disposition and Stephen McRobbie’s more reserved delivery.
