Shadow Show "Silhouettes" LP (2020)

Details: Detroit band Shadow Show's fantastic full-length (2020 released album), Silhouettes (pressed on black vinyl). "Combining elements of 60’s garage-psychedelia into a 21st-century modern pop-art incarnation, Shadow Show projects a vision with the world in their display: a spectacle of light as curious as shadow" New stock, sealed.

Description: "After a few seconds of mysterious noise that sounds like distant waves crashing, Silhouettes, the debut album from Detroit trio Shadow Show, begins with a bassline a few notes removed from "Taxman" and a kaleidoscopic explosion of tremolo guitars and mod pop vocal harmonies. It's a strong start to an album that channels several different generations of both British pop and Detroit rock without ever directly mimicking any specific influences. Vocalist/guitarists Ava East's haunted guitar tones on songs like "The Machine" find the middle ground between pensive, late-night loner jams from Fred Smith's Sonic's Rendezvous Band and the sinister energy of Primal Scream. The slide guitar riffing of "Glass Eye" offers a far more psychedelic reading of Detroit's ongoing fixation with the blues. Shadow Show's songs call on familiar elements -- layered vocal harmonies, the occasional driving punky bassline, melodies laced with garage-rock attitude -- but song structures take unexpected turns. Rarely moving from verse to chorus and back, Shadow Show instead maps out strange navigations for their songs. New riffs are introduced mid-song, a wildly catchy part shows up out of nowhere and is never repeated. These unpredictable moves keep the album interesting and add to the air of mystery Shadow Show spends much of the album establishing. Production from bassist Kate Derringer is wonderfully raw, conveying power and presence while keeping the mixes sharp. The distant perspectives and strange sonic shifts of Silhouettes keep both the band and listeners actively engaged, leaving the album with the feeling that you've just wandered all night through some weird dream."--Fred Thomas, AllMusic

Grade: M (new stock)

TRACK LISTING SIDE A:

A1. Charades
A2. Contessa
A3. Green Stone
A4. The Alchemist
A5. Shadow Box

TRACK LISTING SIDE B:

B1. Trapeze Act
B2. Glass Eye
B3. Dreamhead
B4. The Machine
B5. Silhouette