Former Rolemodel frontman Jordan Allen has recently begun recording and releasing music on his own under the name More Like Shadows. A Toronto-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and visual artist. Listening to his rich, expertly crafted sound, we would suggest that he is clearly inspired by the rich lineage of other well-known Canadian indie artists like Broken Social Scene, You Say Party, We Say Die! and Wolf Parade, as well as a variety of other acts and sub-genres.
Vacation Mode kicks off with Campaign Trail, which has a rocky lo-fi garage charm akin to cult favourite UK band The Cribs and maybe even a smidgen of early The Strokes – or perhaps more pertinently – the bands who inspired them. There are touches of bands like Pixies and early R.E.M. too – the prominent bass, the scratchy guitars and the perfectly proportioned pop sensibilities all blend together beautifully, and at only two minutes and eighteen seconds, it’s in no danger of outstaying its welcome. It does its job effectively, efficiently and excellently.
Hive Mind starts with an immediate post-punk/new wave urgency. We’re reminded of the sound of bands like Gang Of Four, but also more modern indie-pop artists like Surfer Blood or even our own Justin Sconza. Hive Mind is the most recent single from the album, the music is instantly impactful and massively characterful, and we can absolutely imagine hordes of indie kids, hipsters and misfits bouncing along to it in unison. With lyrics like “Can we eat the rich? I just think we’ve had enough of their bullshit”, the song feels, unfortunately, remarkably poignant and incredibly zeitgeisty (fuck billionaires, redistribution of wealth now, for the many, not the few). Towards the end of the track, it descends into Sonic Youth noise territory – although specifically the more listenable stuff – like something off of Rather Ripped or Sonic Nurse. It’s a bit of an assault on the senses – but in a good way – and we bloody love it.
Up next is Discount Season, which starts peacefully with the bass guitar and the electric guitar doing a delicate dance together. As they swivel around each other, they intertwine beautifully before the guitar drops out and hands over the spotlight to the lower end. This is paired with a gentle, exposed vocal – the first we’ve heard thus far in this style – and it is the closest the record has yet come to a ballad. The vocal sounds like Justin Hayward-Young of massive English indie rock band The Vaccines, and musically, as it starts, it feels a little bit like early Radiohead and ends up cruising into Blur and/or Weezer territory. Which is never a bad thing.
The next tune – Aviation For Non Believers – begins with an acoustic guitar and feels rather folky. The vocal comes in, and it’s gentle and rather obviously consciously muddy. The song comes across as earnest and sentimental, a feeling that’s compounded by the addition of some rather beautiful strings about three-quarters of the way through. It then concludes with a surprising piano outro, which feels somewhat disjointed and more like an interlude or a bridge between this song and the next, as opposed to the end of the last one.
Born Again was one of the singles leading up to the release of the album and was initially released almost exactly a year before. It definitely sounds relatively poppy – but still undeniably arty – a bit like how it might sound if Bloc Party and Television collaborated. The lethargic energy (or lack thereof!) of Julian Casablancas is back on this one – the way Allen delivers the first two lines (“Pardon me, but who is keeping score? / We’re dead to rights and we’re waiting on a war”) evokes vivid – and fond – memories of the period spanning This Is It/Room On Fire/First Impressions Of Earth (what a run that was).
The title track is up next. Vacation Mode starts small and subtly, with soft synths and then an equally gentle vocal coming in. Eventually, electronic percussion is introduced (albeit very quietly), as is a lovely, creamy guitar tone. The whole thing is rather dreamy and sounds like what we imagine floating on a cloud might feel like.
Back To The Lockdowns is a punky indie rock song that feels like it could’ve come out 20 years ago during the indie boom of Franz Ferdinand, The Shins, Foals and alike. Some synths come to the fore at around halfway through, and the tonal variety makes a nice change and is a welcome contribution to the overall make-up of the album. The song grows and grows and almost ends up evoking memories of The Killers at their shiny, successful, bombastic peak – perhaps circa-Sam’s Town? The song title conjures memories of a bygone age that we’d rather forget and definitively move on from, thank you very much!
Joy Division meets Can vibes begin the next track. Matron’s Eye is a post-punk/krautrock mash-up that is steeped in rhythm and groove but also built around tense keys and swirling synths. It eventually degenerates into a full-on freak-out that admirably adventurous Brooklyn soundsmiths LCD Soundsystem would be proud of.
The last track is 6 minutes long – unusual for this record (where the next longest tune is just over 4 minutes in length). A protracted intro – all static and shimmer – gives way (eventually) to what sounds like an ebow. This sound dominates over a tasteful backdrop which is finely crafted by the rhythm section (shout out to Michael Laing and Shehzaad Jiwani who contribute drums across the course of the record). It’s a solemn feeling track that musically reminds us a bit of Richard Hawley and/or the gentler moments of Pile. In due course, the song goes from black and white to technicolour as a symphony of noise is gradually accumulated. It gets bigger and bigger until it inevitably collapses in on itself, and although 6 minutes long, it somehow manages to leave you wanting more. It’s quite an artistic feat. In keeping with the rest of the album, then.
Written by Kinda Grizzly
