Selebrities – Delusions 8.4

                Selebrities have every reason to feel accomplished. They’ve managed to put out a great single, EP and now a full album. As someone who grew up extensively on Goth and new wave this album makes me smile ear to ear. Countless nights I spent listening to New Order and Joy Division suddenly feel completely worth it. 

                The guitar weaves its way through drum machines and Maria Usbeck’s fantastic vocals. She gives just the right impression. Her voice sounds straight out of 1982. I’m really impressed at how well each one of these people did their homework. Whenever people have tried doing this sort of sound they try to hide in lo-fi techniques or offer up some other kind of cover. Bands like Twin Shadow and Silk Flowers get part of the ideas right, missing key ingredients. Selebrities has a great grasp on what needs to be done from the low end, rhythm, and tenor of each song. 

                After I learned these guys were from Brooklyn, I felt a bit sheepish. They are so close by, right in my backyard and I didn’t even get to see them live. Considering the rawness of “Living Dead” I’d imagine they would do a pretty good to downright excellent job live. 

                Pacing is great through the album. If things were too heavy before, they follow it with a lighter song. Even within a single song, they know how to keep in interesting. On “Can’t Make Up My Mind” their teaser available free for download, they have a nice little flourish towards the end where the guitar drops out leaving the naked synthesizer. 

                I have a few favorites on here. “Secret Garden” and “Time” are my picks for the highlights. The first one has such a clean guitar line with a drum machine reminiscent of “Bizarre Love Triangle”.  “Time” sounds like the perfect song for a rainy day, which New York has been having plenty. 

                Surprises are good. Delusion is an album filled with surprises. Their focus allows them to really hone a singular sound. Maybe someday Selebrities will be celebrities.

Twin Shadow – Forget 8.0

Yeah, there’s a huge amount of hype surrounding this guy, comparing the sound to “Echo and the Bunnymen”.  Hipster Runoff might as well be him, that's how much cheer-leading they've been doing. Produced with so much warmth, it is a pure joy.

And the start is slow, with “Tyrant Destroyer” before building up to the denser tracks. Each lyric feels like something you’ve heard before, in a good way, not in the blatant rip-off way. “Slow” invites you to sing along with it, and the start of it has so much muscle.

In his own words, Twin Shadow states that he is heavily inspired by B-movie soundtracks. With songs like “When were Dancing”, that statement becomes very believable. Tone-wise it matches up to a tee, complete with slightly off tones. Oh, and then there’s the celebration in the second half of the song.

There’s a bunch of bands mining this same dark 80s material, like Silk Flowers or actual dark 80s band the Smiths, but his voice makes it that much more likable. Crooning without being overkill, it hits all the right notes. Plus, one would be hard-pressed to pick out a bad track from the bunch, and it thankfully does have some tempo variety between the faster and slower tracks.