It is nearly impossible to not think of the ’80s while listening to Twin Shadow. The Brooklyn rocker’s style is so deeply rooted in the post-punk/new wave era of the late ’70s and ’80s that making comparisons to Joy Division, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and even The Cure become inevitable. That’s not to say Twin Shadow is merely recreating the past. If anything, he is celebrating it by gathering these influences and throwing his own musical and lyrical showmanship on them to create a new sound from the old. Think of Twin Shadow as a time traveler with current musical know-how who injects his acquired style back into the post-punk/new wave genre. Not so much a recreation as it is a reshaping.
George Lewis Jr., the man behind Twin Shadow’s genius, formed the group after moving to New York in 2006. Four years later, Lewis released his first studio album with the production help from Chris Taylor, bassist for the Brooklyn-based group Grizzly Bear. The product, the 11-track 2010 debut Forget, pushed Twin Shadow through the indie rock threshold, earning No. 26 on Pitchfork’s “Top 50 Albums of 2010” and Rolling Stone’s “Band of the Week” on October 7, 2010. Lewis and company even supported Florence + the Machine on a leg of their 2011 U.S. tour and gigged it up at festivals like Coachella, Bonnaroo, Pitchfork, and Sasquatch Music Festival.
Now with their second studio effort in two years, Twin Shadow shows that it hasn’t forgotten its roots. Confess is packed with the same intensity as the debut. Self-produced with melancholy synth arrangements, uptempo drumming, and alternations between acoustic and electric guitars, Confess looks to be Lewis’ most ambitious album yet. The track “Five Seconds,” for which a theatrically-tantalizing video (below) also exists, embodies Lewis’ artistic talents and delivers a sense of urgency through which the singer/songwriter must reach not only the object of his affections, but listeners as well.
Twin Shadow is making its rounds this summer in support of Confess with shows at Lollapalooza and abroad. Not bad for a guy who looks like a punked-out version of John Oates.