Cannons - Shadows

Cannons
Shadows
2019
Spotify

Shadows is the follow up to Cannons' debut record Night Drive. I'm not going to get into my over five year history with this band because I have written about it before but safe to say I've been a fan of them for awhile now.  This album continues their rise both musically and in popularity. A recent tour with Party Nails exposed the band to many more people and allowed them to experience their moody live show. A surprise on this record is "Love Chained" a song that feels like a synth version of a doo wop song set far in the future. This is by far their crispest work to date. Every note and tone feels razor sharp and completely original. There are a lot of Synth Pop acts that sound exactly like each other and don't do much to distinguish themselves. Cannons however have never followed the crowd, even with their super early work. They've always felt like they were vibing on an entirely different plane than everyone else. Even at the very beginning there was this ease to their music, it starts gentle and then just worms it's way into your ears. The vocals feel always distant, something for you to reach to and pull the song in an ever forward direction.

This album however is really short at only seven tracks and 25 minutes. It feels like barely more than an EP but not nearly enough to constitute a full album. Perhaps that is just antiquated thinking from the non Digital age, but the album as a piece of art still has value. It's almost jarring how quickly you are sitting there drifting away with Cannons then suddenly, silence. It's their record and they can do whatever the hell they want with it I just wish there was more here to hold on to. As it is this is still a pretty wonderful little album.

8.0 out of 10