Confess, Twin Shadow’s sophomore release, is what happens when a man learns how to cry in public. What can I say? It’s an emotional experience. Lewis is completely unrestrained in his vocal performances, and such free abandonment considerably raises the Twin Shadow stakes. This, along with his fully formed pop-structured songs is what distances him from those that mine the 80’s for its retro sounds then proceed to laze around thinking their work is done. Well, it’s not done – you need to write some fucking songs like Lewis has; show us some of your soul rather than hiding behind your analogue keyboard sound (or are they just analogue plug-ins?).

Golden Light opens the album and immediately hits you with its bold delivery. The 80’s may be on hand to assist, but this is Lewis’ vision, it’s his heart on the line. The verses purely exist as a place to comedown to; while the chorus reveals the vocalist’s undying hope of love, built with passion rather than a mountain of sounds. The single, Five Seconds, runs at some pace, with dated guitar power-chords resurrected in an excited furore. Again, Lewis yelps like every track is the last he’ll ever get to sing on.

This is a grand gesture of pop brimming with more than just electronics; there is a heavy dose of heart and soul in there too, which is exactly what I want from my pop. And guess what – I haven’t mentioned 80s film director John Hughes once in the writing of this review.

-William Bell-