Review: Preston Lovinggood – Shadow Songs

Preston Lovinggood

Shadow Songs

Team Clermont

Street: 02.25

Preston Lovinggood = Bon Iver + Billy Corgan

Before my first listening of Shadow Songs, I was preparing myself to sit through another guy with a guitar singing cliché love songs. What I got instead was a pleasant surprise of dreamy pop melodies with morbid lyrics, creating happy little ears that felt alright about listening to cliché love songs.

The collaboration with studio producer Darrell Thorp might have been the key to this listening party, as the instrumentation behind the lyrics is what really got me grooving with it, and I think this album would have fallen short otherwise. The melodies and lyrics are fairly simple, and don’t take many risks, but it works for what it is (take “Little Gods” as an example). “Sun Songs,” the conclusion of the album, had me singing along to the chorus within one listening—a true sign of a hit. –Brinley Froelich