Shapes Oxford

Search

Skip to content

Home
About
Music
Videos
Contact
Gallery

Search for:

passing_cover-page-001

15th July 2016 248 × 185 Home

Music

Reviews

THE SHAPES ‘Oh You’ (Self released) While they’re unashamedly a band steeped in musical and lyrical nostalgia, one whose central aim in life is to get a room up and dancing, The Shapes are also steeped in working class politics and on ‘Oh You’ chief songwriter Ant Kelly deals with the confusion he, a lifelong Labour supporter, feels in an era of Brexit, Trump, Putin et al. The song is, he says, his attempt to write a ‘Ghost Town’ for today, but true to form he eschews polemic for reflection, pondering the cultural and constitutional mess we find ourselves in. It’s a brassy lament for social unity sprinkled with samples of Nigel Farage backtracking on broken Brexit promises that feels more like a love letter to an uncaring ex. ‘Comeback Days’ and ‘Number 68’ find The Shapes on more familiar territory, looking wistfully back on days long past, Ant’s simultaneously doleful and puppydog croon mingling with Alix Champ’s sweet, understated soul singing, again the warm brass arrangements lifting everything above simple misty-eyed rumination. Alix then gets full centre stage for the ‘Stars in Her Eyes’, a soft-hearted sideswipe at no-hope X-Factor contestants that can’t quite bring itself to stamp on their dreams. And that’s The Shapes all over: they’ve lived through upheavals and wild parties, loved and lost and still care deeply, but deep down, all they want is to get everyone to put aside their differences and dance the night away. “So let’s have another drink / Because that’s what we like to do,” sings Ant the end of ‘Number 68’ and you wonder if perhaps The Shapes ran the world it would be a far better place. Dale Kattack

Proudly powered by WordPress

Wordpress Social Share Plugin powered by Ultimatelysocial