Shirts vs. Skins by Graham Wright
LABEL: FU:M
Graham Wright plays synthesizers in Tokyo Police Club. However, this review does not concern the quick, screeching guitars of Josh Hook, the thumps and clicks of Greg Alsop or even the grumbling bass and sleepy voice of Dave Monks. In the grand musical ecosystem, it is only natural for one of the members of a band to emerge with a solo project that will inevitably be critiqued alongside the original band’s output. So how Does Graham Wright’s debut album, Shirts vs Skins, stack up?
To be absolutely honest, this album is so curious and sweet that weighing it against another band just isn’t doing it justice. Whereas Tokyo Police Club’s lyrics were shrouded in cryptic layers, Wright’s are almost painfully obvious. “These days I sleep till noon every morning/I don’t answer the phone/I fall asleep on the couch/and then I order Chinese/I probably order too much/but it’ll last for a week,” he sings on “Leftovers,” a song about — you guessed it!
In essence, this is the perfect bite-size pop album; only one track crosses the three-minute mark, and the record as a whole clocks in at less than 30 minutes, though that’s really all the time Wright needs to get his songs across. And the melodies don’t disappoint. “Heavens For Movie Makers” has some phenomenal ooos and horns that pack equal amounts of punch and pop, and the excellent ‘Something Stupid’ is destined to be a car commercial jingle in the years to come.
So, is Shirts vs Skins the most adventurous debut I’ve ever heard? No, not exactly. But it’s good, clean fun that is somewhat rare in a contemporary pop album. And while it may polarize fans of TPC, it’s sure to draw in a completely different fan base — one that likes their music with a pinch of sugar.
REVIEWED BY RAYMOND CHALMÉ
RAY’S FAVORITE TRACKS: “Leftovers” • “Potassium Blast”
FREE MP3: “Soviet Race”
+ Read the Groovemine interview with Graham Wright
