5 out of 5

Label: Luna / Recordhead

Producer: Mahan Kalpa Singh / Bill Doss

The way the songs effortlessly roll from one into the next; the way it embraces both its hippie-dippy genre plus a darker indie folk plus a rollicking rock plus an almost experimental punkiness, all without grasping at straws or laying it on too thick; Chris Barth’s mysterious and playful lyrics, delivered chipperly, masking haunting themes right at the edges of his sentences and words…  There’s not a single moment on Bless the Headless that doesn’t work to strengthen the whole.  I’m a big fan of the Shapes, and each album has its merits.  They have more than one amazing record in their catalogue, which is astounding in and of itself, but on the average I’ll say that several of the discs have their indulgences that lead to some slow points, or require several listens to step through a certain veil or feel established to dig to the core of the sound.  Bless the Headless is accessible immediately, however, and in the best of ways, casually leading you along until you realize that you’re back on the first track, and why not, let’s go again.  And again, and again.  It is on this album where Chris found his balance as a vocalist, giving his pleasing warble full strength, and the band understood that letting each musical element get turned up to 11 will actually work in their favor – such a talented player is each member that the bounding bass line, the loose and twinkling guitar that scissors into biting moments of intensity with the push of a pedal, and the backbone drums, stretching to experimental fills that never distill or sacrifice the main beat are a joy to listen to on their own, not to mention the craft it takes to blend it together into the ebbing and flowing waves of soothing to scorching music.

‘Bless’ is dotted with a sense of fun, told by the songtitles but toyed a little, as mentioned, with in the lyrics.  Opened ‘Play With Me’, and ‘I Live on Your Roof’ toward the album’s latter half honest and passionate little numbers, the latter leading into the excellently shifty ‘Kids Need Creeks,’ that burns the path for the last couple songs, including the partially instrumental flip-out of the titular track closer.  And then the sweet bass line swoons in again and it’s time for another go.

Several indie references will come to mind if you’re new to shapes.  Certainly Elephant 6, with which the band was loosely associated (and OTC’s Bill Doss is here with production duties), but every main E6 group, to me, has a ‘shtick’, and The Shapes immediately differ from that, striking one as a band first and foremost and not just a concept.  The Allmusic review mentions Pavement and I’ll give them that – the loopy forward slacker momentum that can break out into moments of chaotic precision.  (Yes, yes, we love contradictory words that just sound neat together.)  But again, it’s not a one-to-one thing – for every shoulder shrug feeling you get from a Pavement track, The Impossible Shapes are back in the studio, getting their groove down until it’s truly organic.

Enough words, right?  Shoop.  Put out another album already, sheesh.