Music Review // Shn Shn "Serpent's Skin"

https://shnshn.bandcamp.com/album/serpents-skin

"Serpent's Skin" is such a rarity in music because not only does it cross different sound styles it takes us on a journey through time, all of which you might not really be aware of if you're not paying close enough attention.   Shn Shn begins this album with dreamy, delicate acoustics which come with singing but not words.  There are sounds of the flute and before the end of the first song it can become more intense.  "Glimmer"- the second song- has singing with words, more like glass tones and vibrations in the sound and this just takes us into an electronic feeling overall.  

Beats will kick in and on the third song this funky guitar riff will loop.  By this point in the album I am reminded of Grace Jones, but then as we reach ambient bliss on "Flow" I am thinking more about Enya.  "Tender Bodies" stretches out the singing of the title while piano fragments come through.  Pianos, strings and what sounds like creaky doors bring out what reminds me of Fiona Apple on "Anomalies".   By the time we make it to "Blip in the..." the spoken word reminds me of "Vogue" era Madonna.  

"Diverging Paths" has faster beats with an audio clip while "Home is Another Place" ends on this big vocals with piano deal.  Really one of the biggest factors within this music is thinking about the time frame it might be set in.  I think of a film such as "Bladerunner", where it is set in the future and this makes me feel like it could tell a similar story to either that or something along the lines of a "Mad Max" film.  There is just this way about the style of music but also how it is delivered and lyrically it just feels like a story throughout the album.

The answer to what this album truly does though is found in the song "Glimmer" as it has the line "Never a yell but a whisper"  Many times, music can be heard as in your face or just very blatant in the delivery of it.  Even with a lot of pop music, not only what the artist is trying to say but also the way in which it can be catchy is right there on the surface.  Shn Shn has created this sound which doesn't feel as abrasive or intrusive but rather kind of sneaks inside your mind, plants itself down and gets stuck there.  It is something you will keep coming back for but at first you might not understand why.