Shapes And Sizes - Split Hips, Winning Hips, A Shiner

After extensive touring on their self-titled debut album, Shapes and Sizes have refined their brand of experimental pop to create a cohesive, demanding and rewarding listen. Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner is proof that Shapes and Sizes aim to please the while not pandering. Imagine a soulful top 40 Thinking Fellers playing songs for the prom. Lyrically Split Lips is at once celebratory and derogatory; among other things, a peculiar but calculated meditation on naive nationalism and potent protest ("Victory in War, oh what a bore"). "High Life" focuses on benign habits turned scabrous, and "Alone/Alive" casts an existential strobe on freedom and
dependence minus the pretension that usually comes along for that ride. Split Lip's harmonious discord is also technical: the band recorded with JC/DC Studios (Destroyer, New Pornographers, Tegan and Sara, etc.) and mixed with Asthmatic Kitty's own Rafter Roberts (Fiery Furnaces, The Rapture, The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower) to forge a pristine decomposition. Don't try turning it down- the overdrive provides the framework for equally aggressive lyrics that combine sensuality, violence, and social critique.
“Pop songs can often feel like variations on the same pattern…Shapes and Sizes are able to remix that formula, creating pop tunes that feel just slightly off, and thus become infinitely more interesting.” - CMJ. Selling Points…-

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