February 22, 2010

Album Review: Shy Child - 'Liquid Love'

The Brooklyn outfit's latest offering makes them more of the retiring type

4 / 10 Shy Child were new rave’s slightly odd American cousins; the Brooklyn duo’s Pete Cafarella played keytar and their tough, R&B-inflected electro was aggressively different. Their ‘Noise Won’t Stop’ single is a minor classic. The Shy Child of 2010, however, are much changed and rather lame. ‘Liquid Love’ is their supposedly ‘female’ album – a patronising nonsense of a concept in itself – which means misty samples of Fleetwood Mac (the third most pernicious influence on music, after cocaine and The Rolling Stones), and much sensitively-lit, soft-focus pop-funk. It’s Hall & Oates without the casual genius; Boy Crisis without the chutzpah; Junior Boys without the emotional baggage.

Tony Naylor

Click here to get your copy of Shy Child's 'Liquid Love' at the Rough Trade shop.

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