12/24/2023 0 Comments Andy shauf 2022I’m looking to discovering more artists like Andy in the near future. His music has been a great example of the variety of sound within indie folk. His music has given me a lot of joy these past few months. I’m looking forward to his more recent explorations into a darker tone within his 2022 singles, “Satan” and “Jacob Rose”. He has established such a gentle tone and sound. ConclusionĪndy Shauf provides such a unique form of storytelling to the musical world. This album was no longer about a struggling romantic relationship, but an internalized struggle centered around loss. His simple response at the concert greatly shaped the way I approached “Wilds” and brought a new depth to his lyrics. Most of the tracks are from his perspective and revolve around Judy. In his most recent album, “Wilds”, he takes a more personal approach to his storytelling. In response to this question, Andy simply stated, “Me”, then proceeded to the next song. The character Judy is very apparent all across his works and is often portrayed as a love interest as seen in tracks, “Where are you Judy”, “Jaywalker”, “Judy”, “The Moon”, “Jeremy’s Wedding”, and many others. In between songs Andy would ask for questions from the crowd– perhaps the most intriguing question that arose was, “Who’s Judy?”. It was by far the chillest concert I have ever been to. While on the subject, Andy Shauf was fantastic live. I had the opportunity to see Andy Shauf in concert last February at Cat’s Cradle, and hearing “Thirteen Hours” live really amplifed my love for this track.Īndy Shauf, “The Neon Skyline” cover art “Who’s Judy?” My top track on this release was certainly “Thirteen Hours”, which implements some excellent woodwinds and percussion. His 2020 album release, “The Neon Skyline”, describes the nightlife of a group of friends and provides a very upbeat, charming sound to his discography. “Early to the party / You’re the first one there / Overdressed and under prepared / Standing in the kitchen / Stressing out the host / Pulling teeth ’til anyone arrives.”Īndy has a magnificent way of putting us into multiple characters’ perspectives which I hadn’t seen before in such quantity in other artists.ĭue to his array of characters and personas, each of his albums sound and feel very distinct. “Satan is waiting,” Shauf repeats calmly, but it doesn’t sound like a manic reminder rather, it’s an oddly comforting reminder to take life as it comes.There are many tracks I simply adored in this particular album, but “Early to the Party” and “To You” were ones that really struck me.īoth take on a really mellow, relaxed tone but describe very awkward social situations many of us face at one time or another in our lives: “One long disciplined life and at the end,” Shauf decides, “I’m taking my shoes off and jumping on in,” throwing caution to the wind, a tongue-in-cheek way to view the inevitable. The track is short but incredibly (bitter)sweet despite this idea, with softly strummed guitar and Shauf’s signature vocal lilt. The Saskatchewan-born performer has already made a name for himself. Where after you complete a long and disciplined life, you find yourself holding a bite-sized chocolate bar stapled to an invitation to a Hallowe’en pool party with Satan himself. Norm, the eighth album from singer-songwriter Andy Shauf, is a shimmering arc with unsettling silences that complete its story, the pop and hiss of a needle on a turntable after the song ends, emptiness like a trap door into something tender and terrifying. So with the lyrics of this song, I was trying to take this cartoon-like simplification of life (and death) and pair it with a cartoon-like version of this Christian hell. A sort of cartoon-like simplification of ancient texts. The Christianity that I was brought up in said that believers went to heaven and non-believers went to hell. After a few years of this, my parents realized it was a bit silly to deny us our free candy and let us resume. The church that I grew up in was saying that Hallowe’en was “The Devil’s Day” and that it had its roots in satanic rituals. When I was young, there were a few years where I wasn’t allowed to celebrate Hallowe’en. “Satan” comes with a lengthy explanation from Shauf: Most of Shauf’s releases are narratives rather than songs – the lyrics always seem like mini-novellas disguised as verse, as was the case with The Neon Skyline and The Party (still one of my favorite albums of all time). Earlier this week, Toronto-based singer/songwriter Andy Shauf returned with “Satan” and “Jacob Rose,” his first new singles since last year’s charming Wilds LP.
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