Music Review // Keep Shelly in Athens "V"

https://athenianaurarecordings.bandcamp.com/album/v

I enjoy right away the fact that this album is called "V" because it is the fifth album by Keep Shelly in Athens.  I feel like it's such a blessing every time a new album by Keep Shelly in Athens pops up and this time is no different.  The state of the world right now and specifically the United States is kind of bleak and so I really appreciate that listening to this album can help to make me feel better because it does feel, overall, to be uplifting.

While this could easily be described as synth pop because of the amount of keys in here, I also think about how dreamy it is, how it can fall into that -gaze genre and just also how it makes me think of the past as well.   Thinking of artists such as Cyndi Lauper and films such as "Pretty In Pink", Keep Shelly in Athens makes me feel like I'm right back into a time when either the world wasn't such a terrible place or I was just too young and ignorant to see it.

If you're playing to the radio, there is a definite hit in the song "Better Said" while "Queen of the Ashes" comes out with this big, echoing and fuzzy distortion underneath it.  "Those Quiet Goodbyes" is more of a traditional keyboard stlyled ballad while that big synth power comes back with the song "Silvia".   This can feel like a blast from the past, but it also just feels like Keep Shelly in Athens using that synth throughout the songs in a way which ties them all together but also distinguishes one from the next.

Even though "V" comes with a bit of nostalgia (and I do think bands should play in malls again, if malls still exist, but that's another story) it overall will just keep you in the present tense as well.    There is an element of seriousness to it where it can feel sad at times as well.  I'm too wrapped up in this taking me to a place I found comfort that perhaps I don't see these songs are being sort of emo, but it's just a great modern sound with a throwback vibe that I feel like listening to this album is guaranteed to improve your mood.