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Arts and Culture
Music

Twin Shadow Is Cooler than You

George Lewis Jr. has movie star appeal (and a great second album).

Alex Hudson 9 Aug 2012TheTyee.ca

Alex Hudson writes for various music publications and runs a blog called Chipped Hip.
Musician Twin Shadow
Lewis George Jr. -- all this and Prince's 1986 hair.

Most ordinary men will never be as cool as movie stars. We'll never have the brooding masculinity of James Dean, the counter-cultural edginess of Steve McQueen, or the saucy sex appeal of Connery-era James Bond.

Twin Shadow mastermind Lewis George Jr., however, is no ordinary guy. Just take a look at the photo on the cover of his recently released sophomore album, Confess. It shows Lewis donning a beat-up leather jacket and clutching his belt buckle while giving the camera a withering stare.

Wait, it gets even better. During interviews about the album, Lewis has explained that he spent his free time between recording sessions riding his motorcycle around Los Angeles. In the video for the album's first single, "Five Seconds," Lewis stands on the seat of a moving motorcycle before kicking the crap out of some masked men in a bloody brawl.

Seriously, what a fucking badass.

And then there's the music. Every groove on Confess is steeped in sultry suave, as Lewis's deep croon intermingles with crisp electronic grooves, dreamscape synths and watery guitar lines. These features aren't a huge departure from Twin Shadow's previous LP, 2010's Forget, and the overall effect resembles an '80s prom playlist or the new wave-tinged soundtrack to a teen movie.

The collection's instant classic is the aforementioned "Five Seconds," a perky pop number that finds the unlikely middle ground between TV on the Radio's "Wolf Like Me" and Berlin's "Take My Breath Away." While acoustic guitar gives way to crunchy electric licks and programmed handclaps, Lewis repeats the track's unforgettably breathy chorus: "Five seconds in your heart / Straight to your heart / I can't get your heart."

The album is filled with similarly steamy refrains. The cinematic "Beg for the Night" is punctuated by orchestra stabs and a harmony-assisted hook of "Here comes your love / He longs to be near you." Elsewhere, the simmering "Be Mine Tonight" contains the disc's most seductive lyric: "You're mine tonight / If you can't go home."

This Saturday, Aug. 11, Twin Shadow will perform at Venue in Vancouver. If the songwriting quality on Confess is any indication, it should be one of the shows of the summer. But fellas, be sure to exercise caution when bringing a date to the concert; at best, you'll only be the second coolest guy in the room. [Tyee]

Read more: Music

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