Soft Lighting: Glamour Shots
Soft Lighting: Glamour Shots– Producer Bryan Cox is a complex guy. After hearing his debut, Slow Motion Silhouettes, I was reasonably sure I’d figured out where he was coming from. His style was a bit disjointed, but distinctly original. A little chill wave, a little experimental pop and lots of synths. Yeah, I liked it. I liked it a lot.
4 short months later, the last thing I was expecting from him was another brilliant record. Perhaps a nice remix album with some great artists like Brothertiger or somebody… what’s that you say? He did a split with Brothertiger where they each remixed a song of each others? Sure, but that can hardly be counted as a remix record. This is a full and proper EP, and a phenomenal one at that. Where does he come up with this stuff?
Glamour Shots begins with ‘Lust’, a synth-heavy song that perfectly sets the tone of where this EP is about to take us: A sexy record with songs that compliment each other in lyrical content as well as tone. We then are treated to one of the sexiest songs I’ve heard in a while, ‘So Good’. When I spoke with Bryan back in April, he talked about creating a new genre called glo-fi or softcore that was borderline porn music and this certainly qualifies. As the album continues, we’re treated to Soft Lighting‘s most musically complex track to date, ‘Someone To Come’… the lyrics speak for themselves. We then move on to ‘Centuries’ where we’re treated to another sexy track which lyrically reminds me of 90s R&B with it’s explicit content. The song is actually more singable than I would have thought if I only had read the lyrics. Musically, it provides a nice reprieve from the other faster-paced tracks and is placed quite nicely. Glamour Shots concludes with the upbeat and light-hearted track, ‘Press Rewind’. The song isn’t about sex as much as it’s about trying to relive situations over again. I think the idea is also meant to inspire us, in a sense, to rewind the album and enjoy it again as well… which I gladly have done many times.
All in all, Glamour Shots is hands-down the sexiest non-R&B related record of the year. Even if I’m super analytical and as critical as I can be, I really couldn’t find any fault with it. It is, in a real sense, a perfect record. A brilliant follow-up that solidifies a place in our top records of 2012…10/10