- Mon, 2010-11-22 13:01
The styles and sounds of the '80s have been comprehensively mined all across the indie board in recent times, but few have been able to make use of what they’ve found with such elegance and finesse, and with such a complete lack of affectation, as does Twin Shadow on his debut album Forget.
First track Tyrant Destroyed opens with the kind of soft-around-the-edges synth sound that has been a staple of the chillwave movement, but two things quickly mark out Twin Shadow as standing apart from that crowd. The first are his vocals; a bruised whisper that immediately grabs the attention in an understated way. The second is the delicate pizzicato melody that briefly flutters past, the first example of the attention to detail and remarkable subtlety that permeates the album as a whole. As the song climbs towards its climax it sets the scene perfectly for the following ten tracks, its intricacy and sophistication glowing under Lewis Jr’s softly charismatic voice.
It’s a dynamic that is maintained throughout the album, albeit couched in different terms tune by tune. When We’re Dancing and Sway achieve a similar nostalgia for a lost youth as do Neon Indian or Summer Camp, combining fat bass, drum machines and conversational licks on the guitar. Shooting Holes enlists sweeping strings and a disco bass-line, while funky, shuffling drums lend At My Heels and For Now serious swagger. The ghost of Prince is present, buried beneath swathes of Depeche Mode, on Yellow Balloon and I Can’t Wait, and the album’s darkest moment – Castles In The Snow – even alludes to witch house with its sinister and slow melodic counterpoints.
Twin Shadow draws together these disparate moods effortlessly, helped in no small part by Chris Taylor (of Grizzly Bear)’s phenomenally adept production. The defining feature of the album, however, is the quality of song-writing on show. Forget is a series of beautiful and affecting songs, and that they recall the new wave era is almost incidental. Where so many other bands and artists adopt the ‘80s as their chosen language and speak it with a strange or stilted accent, Twin Shadow is completely fluent, a fact that allows him to use old phrases to say something new.
