11/21/2023 0 Comments Andy shauf okcAdmitting to oneself that you screwed up a relationship, well, that's relatable - and so is obsessing about the past and so is the experience of coincidence that uncanny moment when the person you've been thinking about suddenly appears before you. One is that the story he's telling, while slight, is also universal. And with his chalky voice and intimate instrumentation, the results could've been self-conscious, precious, the very definition of twee. TUCKER: Andy Shauf sings and plays everything on the album. Why do I do the things I do when I know I am losing you? Why do I do the things I do when I know I am losing you? It was supposed to be a surprise, me showing up. SHAUF: (Singing) Seems like I should've known better than to turn my head like it didn't matter. A few moments later, Judy walks into the bar. They order drinks, and one friend tells him his ex is back in town. Over the course of 11 songs, Andy Shauf presents himself as a lonesome first-person narrator who goes to his neighborhood bar thinking about his long gone ex-girlfriend Judy and how they broke up. KEN TUCKER, BYLINE: "The Neon Skyline" is an album, but it's also a short story. I said, come to the Skyline, I’ll be washing my sins away. Here's Ken's review.ĪNDY SHAUF: (Singing) I called up Charlie about a quarter past 9 and said, what’s going on tonight? He said, no plans, but I wouldn’t mind holding a lighter head tonight. Shauf wrote, produced and performed everything on the album. Rock critic Ken Tucker has a review of the new album by the Canadian singer-songwriter Andy Shauf called "The Neon Skyline." It's a concept album whose lyrics tell one story for the length of the collection. Even in the detail of lonesome battles, Foxwarren’s kinship and warmth persist.This is FRESH AIR. Still, these songs suggest the continuous struggle to be comforted, and Shauf finds himself stronger in the company of others. There’s always a pull away from the physical world here, away from company and toward deterrence. Shauf’s friends help him investigate his darkest emotional corners.Įven though Foxwarren come from a place of companionship, their debut navigates isolation and escape. He searches for answers (“Could I find myself on the other end/Of my cigarette half-lit?”) but falls back into hopelessness: “See it flicker ’til it falls apart.” On the standout “Everything Apart,” Shauf looks for “someone who can keep it all away.” Avery Kissick’s tightly kept drums, which kick with the persistence of a long-distance runner, lead the search, while Darryl Kissick’s bass urgently ticks away the time. On “Sunset Canyon,” Shauf’s gentle vocals give day drinking and a “sunset cigarette” a haunting languor. Loss permeates Foxwarren, actively and passively. Both entail a sense of self-erasure, whether it means asking to be forgotten or accepting a helpless state. The album’s centerpiece, it exemplifies the conflicting interpretations of dreams, captured elsewhere by the glum minor chords of “Lost in a Dream” and the finger-plucked sunniness of “Fall Into a Dream.” One suggests a doomed consciousness, the other whimsical spontaneity. This poignant bit of dream-like escapism ends with a hollow, reverberating synth, encapsulating the feeling of being lost in a tenebrous space. “Oh patient day, bring the idle night/Do we live with it if we close our eyes,” Shauf sings during “Lost on You,” his voice a cushioning croon, as he wonders if a piece of his broken heart still remains with a past lover. Sturdy numbers like “Everything Apart” and “Lost on You” support low-ringing strings and wistful steel guitar that afford a luminescent touch, like noticing the glittering grain of concrete beneath streetlights. As a whole, though, they fixate on the dream realm, with the shimmer of warped synths and eerie vocals suggesting a distant surrealism. Foxwarren’s 10 tracks range in tone from brooding Elliott Smith-like ballads to Paul McCartney ditties.
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