Critique of Shape Shift with Me: Christian Doyle

 Doyle describes the album Shape Shift with Me as “solid,” but not entirely without problems. He begins with the positive, bringing up his top three songs: 12:03, a “great, great punk song”; Crash, whose bass and melody were perfect; and 333, a “massive” song with an excellent guitar. Unlike many reviews of the band’s previous album, Doyle says that the “production suits the tone.” Going into some of the weak points of the album, he compares Grace’s vocals to The Offspring, which a couple of commenters disagreed with. I also do not see the similarity, but I don’t really listen to much of The Offspring outside of what’s on the radio. Additionally, the lyrics often don’t seem to suit the tone, which is a problem brought up in reviews of their previous album as well. Doyle also pointed out how songs like “Delicate, Petite, and Other things I’ll Never Be,” a song about a trans woman’s dysphoria, wasn’t the most relatable to him. I understand how relatable music really appeals to people, and how it’s great when a song about a seemingly narrow topic is applicable to a wider audience, it kind of seems like the point of songs like these was to display an experience others may not have had. The experimentation in some of the songs on the second half of the album didn’t really work in Doyle’s opinion, especially in the track Norse Truth. Although it wasn’t my favorite song either, I do like it. However, looking more closely at it, I do see problems in the song. It does feel pretty clunky at times, especially with Grace’s habit of cramming as many syllables into a line as possible. Usually I really like this aspect, but in Norse Truth it gets a little convoluted. This helped me understand how to look at factors of songs such as its cadence, and although this was less of an analysis, it still helps me look at music a bit more critically.