Customer Reviews

Shackeltons

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The Shackeltons

The Shackelton's self-titled album is full of energy and presents an in-your-face mix of punk, noise, lo-fi and alternative rock. This is a very interesting take and a strong first album.

It's too bad so many reviewers have panned this album. This is a very specific type of alternative music. The oversimplified lyrics and stock guitar chords are intentional in this genre. If you're into lo-fi punk alternative and noise rock, you will find a lot to love here.

The vocals are decidedly lo-fi. The simple spoken word transitions to screeching and screaming are punk rock staples.

The machine gun bass and rhythm guitars provide the alternative rock part of the sound equation. And the military drums and voice effects provide a strong punk rock backdrop.

The vocals do sound a lot like the Pixies. And many of their riffs and drum sequences sound like they were copied identically from the White Stripes. A great example of that is "The Breaks." Still, this band is meant to sound raw and doesn't even have the cleanness of the White Stripes.

On tracks like "Emergency," they are clearly channeling early Radiohead songs like "Creep" from the Pablo Honey album. The song has a much more soft melodic feel than most of the album, with softer echo tunnel vocals layered on top. Yet that's the exception. Most of the tracks on this album are closer to "The Breaks."

The best track on this album is probably "Madeline." It has a clean fast rhythm and cool bass and guitar licks under the standard minimal vocals and lyrics.

For Fans Of:

Morningwood Morningwood
The Pixies Doolittle
The Replacements All Shook Down
Kings of Leon Because of the Times
Radiohead Pablo Honey
Sonic Youth Daydream Nation
The White Stripes Icky Thump
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs Show Your Bones
Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand

Overall this is an awesome first album in this genre. Check it out!

Enjoy.

It took me at least 2 listens all the way through to decide how I felt about this album. It doesn't conform to any of the patterns that most rock does these days. But after you get the feel for the manic, frenzied feel of this album you can't help but love it. Described as inferior to the Pixies, or the White Stripes etc, remember this is their DEBUT album and given their energy and raw talent, I dare say they may surpass them.
On a side note, their live show is one to behold, and I have not seen anyone out-do them, newbies or veterans alike.

I really like every song on this album and they have grown on me with each listen. My favorite is probably the opening song, "Your Movement": "Shame on all of us ... We held a lifeless form in our arms, and we didn't know, it was love." "Emergency" and "Yellow Cadillac" are unexpectedly tender and moving and sad. This band has something special -- and I wish I could have seen them in some of the early gigs in small bars playing to a mixture of excitement and incomprehension, since that's what this music really seems to grow from.

I don't really like to play the album as a whole all the way through because back to back it can get to be too much -- this kind of rough and edgy music is great when you mix it up with other listens. Another way of putting this: the Shackeltons would be a great album to put on an iPod on shuffle, just be sure to mix in some upbeat and catchy alt pop or mellow and angsty sounds, as a reprieve from the slightly heavy but never less than moving music on this album. The album reminds me a bit of the feel I got from listening to The Chameleons UK back in high school -- the lead singer's voice reminds me of a punked up and pissed off version of the lead on Cake (and, yes, Franz Ferdinand and the Killers, etc are obvious comparisons). Anyhow, I'll definitely keep this on my iPod, and will be on the lookout for the follow up. This is good stuff.

I totally agree with Katshu, i think the Shackeltons are for sure a diamond in the rough, but in my book, the Shackeltons are totally the new indie rock everybody should check out.
They are pure raw energy and are so amazing live. My favorite song is for sure "The Breaks" which is totally electrifying, but "Your movement" and "get out" are also really awesome.
I heard about them from Spin and Rolling STones and they totally loved them (as do i).

If you leaf through the reviews for The Shackeltons' debut CD, you may notice that there is no real consensus about who their sound most resembles. That's generally a good thing. They have a good solid loud rock sound with a bit of garage band distortion. Although I have not seen this comparison yet, I'll throw it out there - they remind me a lot of early U2, especially the guitar. Imagine The Edge with less reverb and no "helicopter" riffs. There is no pretension here (unlike U2's overt desire for bigger-than-life anthems and political themes). I really do not hear the Pixies comparison at all, which may be problematic for sales - the Pixies would be a much cooler name check reference these days.

Like many debuts, their style is clear at this point but the songs are likely to improve as go forward. From the CD, I'll bet these guys kill live. This disc is good as is, but their upside potential is way high.

I have never really been a huge fan of indie music because it all kind of souds the same to me. But when I heard "The Breaks" by this band, I knew they were something different. The album goes through a wave of emotions and has upbeat, fast songs and slow, haunting ones.

I have never heard anything similar to The Shackeltons before and in this day and age, something this original should not be forgotten. One of the best albums I've heard in a long, long time.

I'll make this short and sweet...

I tried to like this, I really did. But maybe that thing in me that likes uniformed beats, audible vocals, and intelligible lyrics, hindered my experience.

Plain and simple, The Shackeltons are just noise. Maybe they've gotten better over the years, it has been a few since I got this CD, but I won't be seeking out any new material from them. It's rare for me to listen to a CD and not come away with at least one song I enjoyed, but somehow these guys were able to do that for me.

I'm not saying no one will like this. I understand this type of music has a huge, and extremely loyal, following, but this is not something I can listen to. Call me narrow minded, call me whatever, but to me, this is just a CD of people playing their instruments with no real direction. As if they weren't even in the studio together, brainstorming on songs, beats, etc. The mentality I got from hearing this was...

"I'm gonna go record some __________ real quick, then we'll just slap it on that track...no, it doesn't need to go along with anything else, it'll be fine."

BUT THAT'S JUST ME.

This band is so generic it's hard to have an opinion. They list Otis Redding and Joy Division on their MySpace page as influences, but I don't hear it. They just sound like a garage band with a hint of emo - maybe like Murder by Death? It sounds pretty dated - could have been made in 2004.

All in all: boring.

I have heard mumblings comparing this band to The Pixies; Sorry, not even close.

The Shackeltons provide some fun moments on this disc, but it sounds like it was more fun for them to make than for us to listen to. Start with a reasonably nice but not terribly inventive guitar riff, then crash in with the full band, repeat. Not terribly inspired from my angle of view.

And they triggered one of my engineering pet peeves: The "find a decent vocal delay sound and use it ad nauseum" syndrome. They have this tight slap, early Elvis-inspired vocal delay that they use....and use....and use. Cripes, dudes...the Pro Tools plug-ins I have available at my studio are numerous to the point of absurdity; did they have to get addicted to this rather ho-hum vocal slap? Use it once: Fun! Use it over and over: Okay I get the point now make it stop!

Overall, with all the wonderfully creative and inspired music being made these days, I wouldn't spend money on this one.

This CD was interesting to listen to, but I don't know that it will become one of my regulars... In fact, I'm pretty sure it won't. The sound is very rough - it reminds me a bit of some 70s rock, with the simple melody, the singer who screams or talks instead of singing. It's an angry sound, and while there is some style to it, it fails to communicate because neither the lyrics nor the music (calling it "melody" would be a stretch) are remarkable, and the voice of the singer is often drawned by the instruments.

The angry, sometimes anguished feel of these songs remind me of teenage rage and rebellion, which fits in a way - because this sound feels somewhat immature, unripe, sort of picked before it was ready. It might be just that, so I woulnd't give up on the Shackletons, for they might bring us something special; but they aren't quite there, and this isn't it.