TWIN SHADOW: CONFESS

GENRE | HYPNOTIC NEW WAVE
VERDICT | MADE FOR MOVIE SOUNDTRACK
LABEL | 4AD
RELEASE | 7.9.12

The melodramatics that Twin Shadow (real name: George Lewis Jr.) shamelessly employs on his debut album, Forget, are polished to damn near perfection on Confess.

He (still) parades an endless cascade of dazzling velvet rope synths, only this time they’re way more urgent and way more controlled.

When lead single “Five Seconds” starts to veer toward woozy extravagance, it reels itself in with well-placed climaxes and crescendos. The anticipation fostered within the first 10 seconds of “Run My Heart” is enough to leave you breathless. Of course, our protagonist soon revels in an inevitable nadir on “Mirror in the Dark,” where Lewis achingly demands his lover to abruptly assess the demise of an ambiguous relationship. The sultry R&B croons that adorn the track make such a demise much more enticing to behold, even if we are only listeners. Perhaps the best view to have for Confess is that of an outsider, letting Lewis enthrall us with his theatrics from start to finish before we move on.

TWIN SHADOW

SUN 9.30.12
PARADISE ROCK CLUB
967 COMM. AVE.
BOSTON
617.562.8800
7PM/ALL AGES/$15
@PARADISEROCKCLB
THEDISE.COM