After a light sprinkling of singles, Cameron Boyce, the name behind Shy Twombly, finally offers the project’s first full length album, Weathervane. The project appeared seemingly fully formed back in May 2020; perhaps as a result of social isolation due to the COVID pandemic, Boyce managed to pour an entire artistic viewpoint into one single, this being the lovely, ‘Where Violets Go’. An exquisitely produced moment of melancholy, the song bears resemblance to lo-fi staple, Flatsound. However, Boyce’s debut record proves that Shy Twombly will not reside in one corner of musical style.
This is best shown on track two, ‘Blue Hills’; an upbeat jaunt of a song, acoustic guitar noodling is accompanied by foot tapping drums and Boyce’s emo inflected vocals. ‘Flower’ is next, taking a slight pivot into affected auto-tuned vocals and heavier instrumentation, but retaining that oh-so-good dreaminess. ‘Beach in Winter’, track seven on Weathervane is an instrumental rumination, with bird song and distorted white noise, sounding as if you heard the music of Blithe Field from a far away cabin atop a mountain. It is an interesting addition to the record, one that points to Shy Twombly’s inspiration taken from modern art, most obviously the American artist, Cy Twombly, and the way in which work is often made by pulling together images from seemingly disparate places. It tells of the scope of the project, and Boyce’s devotion to reflecting his artistic taste.
Album highlight, and my personal favourite, is the 2021 single, ‘House Near the Highway’. An americana infused song, just oozing with the sense of place, with old movie samples adding to the nostalgic vibe. Shy Twombly utilises repetition in the smartest way, most evident here, as the song builds upon itself over and over again, layer upon layer. It is a good summation of who Cameron Boyce is, as an artist and as an art lover. It heralds back to the basic need to create, and the music scene is all the better for having artists like Shy Twombly within it. If you are a fan of acoustic landscapes, hypnotic repetition, and nostalgia for times you never experienced, Shy Twombly’s, Weathervane, has everything you could wish for.
Written by Callum Foulds
