The Assist - Council Pop Unplugged 
Release Date: 17th February 2023
It's not every band that would get away with an acoustic EP of tracks recently included on their debut album but then the Assist aren't just any band. If you missed their album 'Council Pop' last year then you weren't properly paying attention but you're also going to want to check that out alongside this EP, 'Council Pop Unplugged'. Opening with 'My Friend Drug', the song hangs around a piano melody and acoustic strum which underpins the honest vocal delivery. 'Numb' follows on with gentle but insistent strings urging the song on without losing any of the original version's energy and intensity.
Track three is 'Daydream' and the mixture of lush strings and those almost conversational vocals is as sublime as a sunny day in the local beer garden with mates. The EP finishes off with 'Better Days', one of the best tracks of 2022, which is given the skiffle pub band treatment and still shines through as an amazing song full of pathos, hope, love and ambition. There is more to come from the Assist, of that you can be sure, but for now just enjoy what's already here for the brilliance that it is.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/TheAssistBand
Live Dates:
24th March - 33 Oldham Street, Manchester
1st April - Audio, Glasgow w/The Ritz
22nd April - The Grace, London