Shapes & Sizes - Split Lips, Winning Hips, a Shiner

Shapes and Sizes seem to be one of those bands that you need to be in a specific place to appreciate. I almost passed them up because I just wasn't in the right headspace (or whatever you want to call it), but I persisted and discovered one of the best avant-pop records I've heard in quite a while. I will say it now: this is the kind of album that sorta makes you stoked to be alive.

unsurprisingly, Shapes and Sizes hail from Canada (all the good bands do) and make what they call "bipolar experimental pop music." vocal duties are shared by two singers, one male and one female. both are great singers but the girl in particular has a really incredible voice and she uses it in strange and wonderful ways, ranging from giddy whispers and guttural barks to beautiful wails. in addition to fantastically sloppy and exuberant guitars, there's always plenty of background noise - crashing cymbals, tambourines, shouts, distorted keyboards, amp feedback, and what might possibly be... pipe organs? I seriously don't even know.

every song is unique in its own way but each of them fantastic. and amidst all the noise and barely-containable joy, the choruses are catchy as shit. I'm not kidding - when I first got into this album, I had a week or two where every moment that I spent not listening to it was actually physically painful because I simply couldn't get these songs out of my head.



asthmatickitty.com/shapes-and-sizes
myspace.com/shapesandsizes
last.fm/Shapes and Sizes