With his concept albums built around a single story, Canadian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Andy Shauf has no equal in the world of song. Three years after the cheerful The Neon Skylinewhich recounted the unexpected reunion of two former lovers during a drunken night in a bar, the ineffable and brilliant storyteller is back with Standardwhich is perhaps less fun, but no less brilliant.
Andy Shauf explained that he was inspired by the world of David Lynch to write this new album, and we feel this strangeness throughout his 12 songs where mirror effects, trompe-l’oeil and points of view multiply. Are we in reality or in Norm’s head? Is he a shady loner or inhabited by the memory of a lost love?
The atmosphere is vaporous and the coating of its inventive indie folk adds to the quirky side of the whole, with its changes of tempo which take us by surprise, an element of distortion which makes the atmosphere skid, an unexpected chord which makes us change size. As much with references to God as everyday elements – a phone ringing in the void, an epic departure to a Halloween costume shop –, Standard reaches a surprising depth, between the existential quest for love in a hostile environment and a brain that invents a parallel universe.
It’s certainly not Andy Shauf’s most accessible album and you have to take the time to get into it to really appreciate it. But his inventiveness, his innate sense of storytelling and his intelligence always end up having an effect on our minds by drawing us into his unique and mysterious world.
indie-folk
Standard
Andy Shauf
Arts & Crafts