With the release of their first two critically applauded and commercially successful albums — 2015’s Mercury Prize Top 10 nominated-Are You Satisfied and 2016’s UK Top Ten Take Control, the Royal Tunbridge, Wells, Kent, UK-based punk duo Slaves, comprised of Laurie Vincent (guitar, bass, vocals) and Issac Holman (vocals, drums) have developed a reputation for a sound that meshes elements of early British punk, garage rock and the blues. The band’s third full-length album Acts of Fear and Love was released earlier this year,  and it continues their run of commercially successful albums as it landed on the UK Top Ten — and the album’s title is inspired by a comment, once made by Issac Holman’s college teacher: “There’s no such thing as hate — just acts of fear and love.” And perhaps unsurprisingly, the album in some way reflects the fact that fear and love — primarily fear, may be the among the biggest and most constant motivators in the world at the moment. 

Acts of Fear and Love’s latest single “Magnolia” is a burst of blistering, 77 punk-influenced punk with enormous, arena rock-friendly hooks that’s centered around a sneering take down of bland, suburban consumerism — and a tongue-in-cheek tribute to boring and increasingly ubiquitous color, which has found its way into an overwhelming majority of UK homes. 

The recently released video for “Magnolia” finds the members of Slaves as house painters, painting houses in the bland color that equally bland people desiring in their suburban homes, emphasizing the household’s boring and empty life. And in some way, it’s a glimpse into the duo’s life if they didn’t pursue a career in music.