Young Galaxy - Shapeshifting (2011)

If there’s one thing I can say about Young Galaxy’s new record is that every song have individual charm, some of them with too thumbs up and some of them jumping from boring to good or very good and then back to “I’m not really caring about this particular song”, but even in those songs this record is a grower.

The production is really clean, it never has a silenced moment or a very loud one but that doesn’t allow it to be standard, even with the singing it jumps from male to female vocals, but the indie rock is not so present in this LP like in the past, they now embrace a much more dream pop sound without getting shoegazey putting too much sound making the voices lay in the back, sometimes the voices take part in the ethereal instrumentation but this LP is meant to be understood, the lyrics are a main part of the picture.

Song by song starts really strong through out the first four songs that go right to where they want, very straight forward, then in the song For Dear Life they start the changes of instrumentation and tempo, they pass straight up electronic to dream pop but in a very serene and severe way, only to end in a very cheerful dance beat with 80’s pop influence without loosing a layer of dreamy waves. There are some other sexy beats and songs with space tropical pop in Peripheral Visionaries, probably the best written song in the entire LP and beautifully crafted.

There were songs I didn’t really cared about, the case of High And Goodbye, B.S.E., and the main song of the LP Shapeshifting or the one that gives the title to the album, each for different reasons, High And Goodbye because of it bores me to death, I didn’t understand the lyrics, the song is too slow and I didn’t care about the effects and the instrumentation, while B.S.E. and Shapeshifting are growers but not so obvious. I probably would have liked a little bit more of silence and airy spaces a little bit longere specially in Shapeshifting that tries to be quiet behind a wall of sound but never really gets shoegaze or dreamy enough.

Tracklist:

1. Nth
2. The Angels Are Surely Weeping (featuring Hanna)
3. Blown Minded
4. We Have Everything
5. For Dear Life
6. Peripheral Visionaries
7. High And Goodbye
8. Phantoms
9. Cover Your Tracks
10. B.S.E.
11. Shapeshifting

Rate: 7.8/10

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