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15th July 2016 248 × 185 Home

Music

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Nightshift Review 'The Passing of the Years’ (Self released) Youth, as the saying goes, is wasted on the young. It’s a philosophy that’s served songwriters well over the decades, and this latest Shapes single carries on in the grand tradition, singers Ant Kelly and Alix Cornhill reflecting on just how quickly life passes, while turning the track into something of a love song to the Oxford of their younger selves (“the sound of the streets that make me feel so tall”). It’s a characteristically bittersweet lament that rises from downbeat country-blues to rousing boogie while remaining steadfastly misty-eyed. Like The Relationships’ Richard Ramage, at his best Kelly has a knack for melancholic reflection, and a softness of touch that wouldn’t shame Ray Davies, although more than anything `The Passing of the Years’ reminds us of great lost 80s pop romantics Dream Academy. '

Nightshift Music Magazine Feb 2016: The Shapes suffer no such confusion, their immensely likeable mix of r’n’b, soulful pop and new wave making them a band who’ll never tear down walls but can unite a room full of tipsy party goers like few others in town. Ant Kelly’s tender vocal sparring with Alix Cornhill steers them close to The Beautiful South gone Parisian café folk at times, but they can wander off into a ska or reggae groove without any awkward about turns, and when they hit their stride, as on the honky tonk blues of `Tom Petty’ or the Van Morrison-styled `The Sunshine Song’, they’re a inclusive force of the sort that Klub Kakofanney so cherishes.

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