Los Angeles quartet The Shelters join a number of fellow travelers over the past decade or so\u2014Jet, the Redwalls, Tinted Windows, and the Black Keys, to name a few\u2014who have not so much recycled as recast core elements of classic big-guitars-and-a-backbeat rock and roll, finding new inspiration in sounds that are immediately familiar to listeners of a certain age.<\/p>\n
Maybe the most unusual thing about The Shelters, other than the fact that they\u2019re very, very good at producing a sound that draws inspiration in equal parts from late-\u201960s Beatles, early-\u201970s glam-rock, and late-\u201970s proto-punk club rock, is that these young padowans earned the attention of their very own Obi-Wan Kenobi. Co-producer-slash-Jedi master Tom Petty was impressed enough with what he heard initially to hand the keys to his home studio to the band\u2014Chase Simpson (vocals, guitars, keys), Josh Jove (vocals, guitars, keys, bass) and Sebastian Harris (drums), since augmented by Jacob Pillot on bass\u2014and set them loose.<\/p>\n
It takes no time at all to appreciate why; opener and first single \u201cRebel Heart\u201d sounds like nothing so much as classic TP, with Simpson\u2019s 12-string Rickenbacker leads fuel-injected by Jove\u2019s thundering rhythm guitar while Harris drives the beat home. When Petty\u2019s harmony vocals kick in on the first chorus, they sound perfectly at home on this virtual sequel to \u201cAmerican Girl,\u201d which even throws in a direct quote from Petty\u2019s 1976 debut (\u201ctoo much ain\u2019t enough\u201d) on the bridge.<\/p>\n
Simpson and Jove are terrific musical complements to one another, harmonizing often while trading lead vocals and guitars. As the fat, chunky leads and driving rhythms of \u201cBirdwatching\u201d take over your speakers, you\u2019re reminded that there\u2019s nothing especially complicated about this kind of music; that\u2019s the beauty of it. It\u2019s straight-up verse-chorus-verse guitar rock, but with a dark edge, full of throaty Fenders and Ricks delivering catchy hooks through Marshall stacks, with a certain greasy-LA-club cool infusing every note of tunes like \u201cLiar,\u201d which adds a glammy fuzz to the guitars and echo to the vocals. <\/p>\n
After a brief interlude for a sharp yet tender acoustic cover of the Kinks\u2019 \u201cNothin\u2019 In The World Can Stop Me Worryin\u2019 \u2019Bout That Girl,\u201d the boys are back at it as Jove steps out front for a pair of songs that epitomize that distinctly LA brand of glam gloom. First the jangly \u201cSurely Burn\u201d takes you for a call-and-answer ride through the SoCal night; then \u201cThe Ghost Is Gone\u201d mixes and matches influences, alternating Doorsy verses\u2014cymbal-heavy, smoky and mysterious as Jove intones lines like \u201cWe always try to take over things we cannot control\u201d\u2014with apocalyptic fuzz-guitar breakdowns. <\/p>\n
\u201cGold\u201d sounds like a lost Zombies number re-recorded by Jeff Lynne, featuring falsetto, acoustic and 12-string electric with heavy rhythm strums over trashy drums. \u201cNever Look Behind Ya\u201d adds the Ramones to the band\u2019s menu of influences, a full-tilt rocker with close-miked vocals over a slashing, repeating riff. In the final third, the Shelters deliver nods to late \u201960s psychedelia (the dreamy, echoey \u201cFortune Teller\u201d and the similar, heavier \u201cBorn To Fly\u201d) and another Lynne-esque number (the sing-songy \u201cDandelion Ridge\u201d) before putting an exclamation point on the proceedings with dark, dirty, bluesy closer \u201cDown.\u201d (The latter\u2019s smoldering verses\u2014complete with moody Hammond accents\u2014surely owe a debt to Petty\u2019s own \u201cBreakdown.\u201d)<\/p>\n
The fact that the Shelters wear their influences on their sleeves may have helped them attract Petty\u2019s attention, but it\u2019s only part of the story here. Sharp, creative songwriting, excellent performances, and a big, hooky sound that sticks with you\u2014what more could you ask for? The Force is strong with this promising young quartet.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":32798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[9851],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44570","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-shelters","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44570"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44570"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}