KeyCMND.com: Shy Child
Published by: KeyCMND.com
Date: March 2, 2010
Format: Web (www.keycmnd.com)
Type: Music Review
Shy Child – Liquid Love
Shy Child’s Liquid Love is ten songs that aren’t necessarily ground breaking, as synth-pop duos seem to be a dime a dozen these days, but they aren’t necessarily offensive either. The songs that make up the band’s fourth album are fun and easy to listen to, even if we have basically heard them before. Where Shy Child falls short, in comparison to its long list of peers like MGMT, Passion Pit, and Cut Copy, is in its failure to combine the dynamic highs with any palpable lows. There are spots where a song has the potential to open up, hit hard, and cross over that threshold into a truly great pop song, but the band holds back. “Esp,” a song that could have the potential to stand next to the output of Shy Child’s hugely successful radio-friendly peers, tends to merely drift along into the next track, rather than begging to be replayed immediately.
Liquid Love has a good deal of high moments to contrast, and occasionally trump, a few of its unfortunate lows. Yet it seems that wherever the band does succeed, a misstep is close to follow. The album’s first single, “Disconnected,” features a great chorus. It’s memorable, catchy, and just about everything a good chorus should be. Though, in the end, the song doesn’t go anywhere different from where it began—something that could be said for much of Love. “Criss Cross” is an almost perfect song, and features a groove that can’t be ignored. It could have been the best on the record. The song’s potential is killed, however, by an unnecessary voicemail recording that lasts for a minute-and-a-half and takes the wind completely out of the sails of a song that could have traversed much further unencumbered by it.
While Liquid Love may not be bursting at the seams with songs that are obvious sing/dance-along numbers suited for massive outdoor music festival audiences, and while it has some problems in focus and dynamic, it isn’t an overall failure. Shy Child’s songs are mostly listenable, relatively enjoyable, and they deserve to be heard and not forgotten, at least not immediately.
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