Send "The Shoes " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Unless you're a hack laptop DJ who spends too much time trolling Hype Machine for hot new remixes, you may not be familiar with French production duo the Shoes. For the past couple of years, they've been toiling in that creative substrata of the electronic music world which means turning out big, buzzy remixes for indie popsters like Ladyhawke and Late of the Pier and occasionally getting a stab at flipping a song as massive as Wiley's bottle-popping, grime-gone-clubbing UK hit "Wearing My Rolex". No shame in that. Everyone has to start somewhere, and if Guillaume Brière and Benjamin Lebeau's aren't yet household names, their background has at least prepared them well for making their own surprisingly pop-oriented debut.Shoes have recruited ringers including prolific all-purpose collaborator Gonzales and high-profile pop producer Lexxx (Arcade Fire, Crystal Castles, Madonna), as well as lesser-known names like Esser, CocknBullKid, and the Bewitched Hands to help out on everything from keys, vocals, and percussion to mixing and production duties. It would be surprising for these tracks not to come out sounding like well-polished pop, and indeed, they land nicely somewhere below the breezy highs of fellow Frenchmen Phoenix but above the well-groomed banality of, say, Tahiti 80. About half the album aims for pathos at the disco, the kind of contrast of melancholy emotion and moving rhythms that have allowed rock bands to infiltrate dance clubs without mussing their pouts since at least the dawn of New Order. "Stay the Same" cops the glum night out vibe of early Hot Chip on the verses and the drugged choirboy falsetto of the Klaxons on the chorus. The title track has its vocalist sighing, "There's nobody in the club/ I am the only one who's dancing" over weeping synthetic strings, a listlessly robotic hand-clap, and an appropriately spacious amount of reverb. "Wastin' Time" is an effectively encouraging lift-your-head-up sort of ballad, backed with stick clicking percussion and soft cushioning synthesizer chords, its icy background vocals and keys recalling similar producers-turned-band Miike Snow....full text |
| Musicomh |
| The Shoes occupy the same genre slice as many credible eclectically poppy bands at the moment, all of whom find themselves shoehorned into the 'indie electro' box, to prevent people assuming their brand of music bears any resemblance to The X-Factor banality. Pop for some, after all, has negative connotations. That might also explain why they've been complicatedly labelled as French disco existentialists. But the definition isn't actually inaccurate, because the duo from Reims - Guillaume and Benalways - have a wholly effective, matter-of-fact way of expressing their emotional reaction to people and situations in their lyrics. That said, their easy likeness to a number of other artists does prevent them from breaking new ground. Yet the tracks are served with bucketloads of danceability, which makes them inherently memorable. Stay The Same describes the album perfectly. It's upbeat, percussion-led, and reminiscent of fellow countrymen Phoenix. While that means it won't start a music revolution, it's polished and remains in your head after the album's finished - this puts a skip in the step rather than inciting curses directed at the temporal lobe for its poor choice of internal soundtrack....full text |
| Metro |
| Hotly tipped by Mike Skinner, French duo The Shoes have earned wide respect for their remix and production skills, and in turn call on various names on this debut album, a high-grade if self-consciously modish slice of modern indie-pop. CocknBullKid adds funky female vocals to Cliché’s booming drum line, while Primary 1 appears on the smooth drum’n’bass-infused People Movin’. The broody, melodic electro pop and nonchalant vocals of Stay The Same and Cover Your Eyes peg the pair somewhere between Calvin Harris and Hot Chip, while Wastin’ Time is a chilled, touching track. The title song is an exquisitely languorous slab of disco dolour and The Wolf Under The Moon’s warbling synth gothica recalls elements of The Cure....full text |
The Shoes lyrics
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