Punk Duo Reunites and Redefines with Comeback Album 'HEAVY JELLY'

For a good few years, it looked shaky as to whether Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent would ever be able to find their way forward to this place: rejuvenated and refreshed both as a band and, most importantly, as mates.

UK-based punk duo SOFTPLAY have come out of retirement for their first album in six years, HEAVY JELLY. The band’s comeback LP, which features previous singles 'Everything and Nothing' and ‘Act Violently’, brings forth their new era with 11 brand new tracks.

“We’re like brothers in the sense that you can’t always be best mates with your brother, but now we’ve got it back. We needed to learn how to be friends again, and then all the silliness comes out of that - which is what was fun about our band in the first place"

Formerly known as Slaves, SOFT PLAY have made an incredible impact and sliced their punk history in the UK music scene – achieving multiple Top 10 albums, Gold certification, and a Mercury Prize nomination.

SOFT PLAY released a comeback single ‘Punk’s Dead’ last year, which dropped in the wake of their headline set at the 2000 Trees Festival. Lifting phrases taken from the comments section below their name change announcement and setting them to some of the gnarliest thrashes they’d put on record, the excitable reception to the track was a sign to follow their gut and go all in.

To stay creative from the depths of a mental health crisis, Laurie stated;

“When I was really poorly with it, I didn’t even know what was real and what wasn’t. I didn’t know what were my thoughts and what was reality; I was really delusional"

Outside of music, Laurie started going to therapy. They began hanging out again and tentatively, in 2022, wrote a song. When an offer came in from Blur for the pair to support them at Wembley Stadium, they decided that, if they were to give the band another go for real, some things would need to change. Laurie stated;

“I gave a few ultimatums: you’ve got to start talking to me, and you need to go to therapy as well"

They also decided that, after years of negative focus, they would need to do something about their old band name 'SLAVES'.

“The idea for the music [at the start] was to make a band that’s a cross between Crass and ‘In the Belly of the Shark’ by Gallows, and I don’t think we ever quite got there. But releasing ‘Punk’s Dead’, I realised we can get away with this"

Where previously, the pair had felt nervous about not being political enough, not being earnest or mature enough, ‘HEAVY JELLY’ is a joyous shedding of any of those worries, an album that, instead, leans into the things that only SOFT PLAY can do this well.

They’re a duo who, even before their name change, represented an unlikely fusing together of fuzzy-hearted good vibes and moshpit-starting punk heaviness. Now, they’re amping up both sides into a second act that’s bolder and brighter than ever.