Sugar Coated Bitter Truth As Slaves, the band released their first
EP,
Sugar Coated Bitter Truth, under Boss Tuneage Records in 2012. Their first single, "Where's Your Car Debbie?", was released by Fonthill Records in early 2014; they were then signed by
Virgin EMI. They released their first single under Virgin, "Hey", in November 2014, and released "The Hunter" later that month. They gained more exposure in late 2015 when "The Hunter" was featured on the
Sky One series
You, Me and the Apocalypse. They also appeared on
Later... with Jools Holland and were nominated for the
BBC's
Sound of 2015. In May 2015,
The Fader featured the group in an article about provocative names for music artists. Vincent told
The Fader that criticism of the name came as a surprise to them, describing how they chose the name while trying to think of "an abrasive sounding word, like
Clash". He further said, "We just liked the word. We weren't trying to provoke." The two also addressed the controversy around their name in a statement on
Facebook: "Our band name relates to people not being in control of their day to day lives. Slaves was our way of getting off the paths we didn't want to walk down anymore. The music we make is motivational and aimed at people personally as well as collectively." It reached No. 8 in its first week on the
UK Albums Chart. The album was nominated for the 2015
Mercury Music Prize and has since gone Silver in the UK.
Take Control They released their second album
Take Control on 30 September 2016.
Beastie Boys member
Mike D produced the album, and was featured on the track "Consume or Be Consumed". The album fared better in the charts than the first, climbing to No. 6 in its first week on the UK Albums Chart.
Acts of Fear and Love They released their third album
Acts of Fear and Love on 17 August 2018, which reached number 8 on the UK album charts. In July 2019, the band released a four-track EP titled
The Velvet Ditch and played a headline set at
Truck Festival.
Name change and Heavy Jelly In December 2022, they changed their name to Soft Play. They explained, "The name 'Slaves' is an issue [and] doesn't represent who we are as people or what our music stands for any longer." Their fourth studio album (and first under their new name)
Heavy Jelly was released on 19 July 2024. ==Discography==