Shine

Montreal crooner Sean Nicholas Savage spent some time fixated with musical theater around 2020, putting most of his creative efforts into writing and starring in his live production Please Thrill Me and recording the similarly romantic and storytelling companion album Life Is Crazy. In the arc of his musical evolution, this phase saw him fully embracing the dramatic elements that had always been a part of his style, stripping away drums and rhythms of any kind and opting for chamber pop-infused torch songs. Shine represents a slow wandering away from the stage-ready era that immediately preceded it, with Savage keeping the drums-free instrumentation of Life Is Crazy but writing a set of songs more indebted to gentle indie folk, breezy city pop, and even the mellowest readings of early 2000s mainstream pop. The change is immediately recognizable from the layers of smiling, quasi-classical acoustic guitars and elastic basslines of album opener "Feel Like a Child," a song where Savage paints lyrical pictures of naive wonderment and carefree days. Much of Shine carries a similarly light feel. The instrumentation is limited to piano, bass, acoustic guitars, and the occasional synth pad, with Savage's lilting vocals floating softly overtop. Even when singing about confronting his biggest fears on "Ain't What It Used to Be" or contemplating the end of the world on the title track, Savage sounds lackadaisical and contented, with very few traces remaining of the melancholia and urgency that so long characterized his work. Production on Shine is handled by Savage's longtime friend and collaborator Mac DeMarco, and the album's breezy atmospheres benefit from a specific kind of unseriousness that DeMarco excels at. At times the laid-back instrumentation threatens to get a little too sleepy, but before that happens, Savage delivers moments like "Comet," a tune clearly inspired by the candied melodic sensibilities of late '90s/early 2000s pop giants like Backstreet Boys or Britney Spears. Even without the over-the-top beats and brick-walled instrumentation that made those songs hits, Savage's stripped-down approach on songs like "Comet" and "Poetry Is My Only Chance" is no less catchy. Like all of Shine, these would-be pop hits are thrilling in a strange and subdued way and find Savage expanding his range yet again. ~ Fred Thomas