Review: Shamir, 'Northtown'

With a flamboyant bravado to compliment the range of his influences, Shamir has crafted an extremely exciting debut EP in Northtown. The 19-year-old singer-songwriter from Las Vegas effortlessly blends pop-song sensibilities with house influences whilst staying true to pop and funk elements from his spiritual home in the 80's. Through all this, Shamir is able to bridge the gap between what should be listened to with the utmost attention and what should be danced to without care.

When sitting down to listen to Northtown, its minimal production is strikingly apparent. What is also worth noting is how appropriate this is. On the opening track If It Wasn't True we can hear a multitude of different styles. Treated poorly, this concoction of an 80's Grace Jones-esque bassline superimposed over a house beat, with a melodic and percussive keyboard arrangement, could become too dense and oppressive. The light-handed production does not allow this to happen and so saves the track from becoming just another mind-numbing house tune that thumps you around the ears. The production style allows the complex electronic arrangement of If It Wasn't True to shine through. This can also be said for the loop-heavy Sometimes a Man. Most of all though it allows Shamir's natural and soulful voice to shine through as the standout component of his sound. It never seems like he is trying too hard when singing. Like the record, there doesn't seem to be much effort going into the powerful subtlety of his voice, a voice that's androgynous without becoming sexless. It is hard to invest so much personality in a voice but with Shamir it comes across so naturally.

Different tracks on the EP show off different facets of Shamir's voice and personality in great contrasts of style. Vocally, Sometimes a Man is able to give off a forceful desperation bordering on melodramatic. This leads into the confessional ballad 'I'll Never Be Able to Love which continues the melodrama but in a more elegiac tone. Showing again Shamir's 80's sensibilities, the song harks back to Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U as well as Whitney Houston. But then at 2:10 minutes a cascade of dubstep falls over the track. Amazingly, however, the vocal isn't overpowered and remains the centerpiece of the track. The dance influences are integral to Northtown and give it a bit of edge and coarseness but they never detract from the overall quality of the songs or the vocals. They are subtle for the most part and even when the sirens are blaring on Sometimes a Man, the quality of the composition is not depleted.

And it is the composition of the songs that makes Northtown such an exciting debut. For all the genre-blending and near-subliminal production, if the songs weren't stellar 'Northtown' could have easily slipped under the radar. It is Shamir's appreciation for a well-crafted pop song that really makes the record take off. Such appreciation resonates in the cover of Lindi Ortega's Lived and Died Alone. An already simplistic song in its arrangement on Ortega's Tin Star, Shamir strips the song to its bare bones. With just a guitar and voice, the bittersweet quality of Ortega's song comes through with a sparse and ethereal quality not so pronounced on her version. At the same time, Shamir's own songs stand up alongside the cover. This cannot be said for the majority of debut EPs. In this respect, he is more than just an emerging pop/dance act but an emerging singer-songwriter with true quality.

Rating: 8/10

Listen here for Shamir's track If It Wasn't True.