Labels: No Idea
Review by: Joe Caithness
Shores are an interesting one, they play music that no one gives a shit about anymore and
lots of people give a shit about them all of a sudden. They are also on a label which is
(wrongly) associated with bros high fiving or whiskey-sad cliche ridden punk rock.
Remember No Idea put out all those I Hate Myself, Moonraker, Twelve Hour Turn etc records
too? They weren’t always jumping in the air and getting Hot Water Music tattoos.
This is a 7 inch with no proper artwork of two covers (including a Nirvana one, remember them?),
so it’s shit right? No it’s not. Shores apply their very tight broken down slowcore meets emo thing to two songs from two completely different angles as what are essentially complete reworks of the originals. For anyone who knows the band Twelve Hour Turn, they essentially had two polar sounds they bounced between wonderfully, from being a driving Post Hardcore type thing to a sad, yet heavy, strung out sea of misery. Shores take “Little One”, one of THTs most wallowing moments of music and take away the screaming crescendo and replace it with soft layered vocals. The gives it a completely different emotional impact, which if you know the original track, is a pleasant surprise.
The other side is a re-working of Nirvana’s “Something in the way”, which if you haven’t heard I’d be very fucking surprised as it’s on Nevermind. Now I like Nirvana, which you’re allowed to say again, I know this because I’ve seen cool dudes in cool bars with Nirvana shirts on. They take this bleak song and turn it into a swingy, at times almost ironical jaunty number that succeeds somehow.
So yeah, not only is this record not pointless, it’s actually good. This band gets better and better.