Twin Shadow - Confess Review

On the cover of Confess, George Lewis Jr aka Twin Shadow stands aloof in dim light, his leather jacket torn and rugged. He looks like the sort of guy you wouldn't want your daughter hanging around with – and if Confess is anything to go by then that gut feeling would be a smart one.

While his 2010 debut Forget traded in gentle, slight melodies and obfuscation, there's nothing indirect at all here. Instead, Lewis' sonics are masculine and upfront, while his lyrics are strung together with sly digs and cruelties.

If the polar shift from one LP to the next wasn't clear enough, Lewis vocalises as much on Five Seconds when he shouts: “There's no way to forget it all.” He brushes aside the title, and the ethos of Forget, in a second and then backs it up all over the record....full text Dominican-born George Lewis Jr. began to cultivate his musical prowess in Boston's punk scene before moving out to Brooklyn and expanding his sound to become Twin Shadow. Lewis produced his interpretation of the glo-fi genre late at night in the lonesome confines of his own bedroom, using an old electric typewriter to assemble pages and pages of lyrics. Hooking up with Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear, Twin Shadow released his slow, low-fi debut, Forget which streamed online for free and sold as a downloadable for a dollar—in time building an intrigued fan-base, as well as recognition from a 2010 Rolling Stone Band of the Week column.

Twin Shadow comes back with album number two, Confess, off 4AD, which brings a harder-rocking pop beats matched with carefully measured sequencing economically distributed along the album’s ten tracks. Lewis’ strutting vocals remove some of the mysterious undertones of his previous record, diving headfirst into his retro-revisited genre referred to as "B-Movie Pop" by his Facebook page. The genre’s name perfectly describes tracks such as the exuberantly cool “Five Seconds,” which plays a romantic melody with instruments plucked right out of a cheesy zombie movie soundtrack. Lewis’ vocals march with vigor and class, outdoing much of the subdued quietness established by Forget. He sings eerily close to Tunde Adebimpe’s own vocal style from TV On The Radio, often confusing the ear into thinking that it’s listening to Adebimpe’s attempt at ‘80s pop.

“Golden Light,” starts the record off with a strong emotional backbone provided by Lewis’ boundless energy, passionately assembling every cautious verse into the explosive chorus that chants variations of the line, “some people say there’s a golden light—you’re the golden light,” followed by a haunting vocal flourish which stirs with an almost wordless sentiment. The second track, “You Can Call on Me,” begins to peel Twin Shadow’s sound away from its Forget days with a pop-punk guitar intro that mashes with a scratching, echoing bass beat at the main verse, leading into a dramatically expressive chorus which Lewis sings with everything he has....full text Twin Shadow’s (George Lewis Jr.) new LP Confess is now streaming on the Urban Outfitter’s website. The album, set for release on July 10, is his second full-length record following 2010’s Forget. His North American tour to promote Confess starts late July and will last until the end of September.

“One winter I crashed my motorcycle with a friend on the back," Lewis said about the album’s inspiration. "I shouldn’t have been riding that day, but I was young and fearless of the black roads, fast and easy in my ways. As the bike slipped from under us my head filled with words. The slow motion moments of calm just after surprise and just before regret are bliss. I remember in that moment I wanted to say everything to him. How could I say everything in a split second? How could I bury my words in his heart?”...full text