Shelter are a synthpop duo consisting of Mark Bebb and Rob Bradley, that have been around for around 10 years, and have had quite an interesting career, as well as releasing 4 studio albums, including this latest album "Is This How It Ends?", on top of that they have supported Erasure on tour and have recorded an album with Erasure's Andy Bell, in addition they have released a live album and a remix collection.
It will come as no surprised the duo are heavily influenced by the music of Erasure.
The new album, released via Lexer Music features 2 CDs, the main album and a CD of remixes.
The album opens with the darker tones of "Zero Gravity", some wonderful orchestration and piano, blends superbly with the synth sounds, a passionate vocal from Mark guides us through the song, a superb opening track.
"Crystalline" is pure electro, infectious and upbeat, beautiful synth sounds, already a massive highlight on the album for me, perfection! Easy to see why it was chosen as a single
"Some Kind Of Angel" transported me back to Erasure around the time they released "The Circus", some nice sequenced parts and a dominant bass-line, Mark is on fine form with his vocals, a mid-paced synthpop nugget.
Next we are treated to a fantastic dreamy mid-paced ballad "Closer", outstanding synth work, what I have to say at this point is the prodcution is outstanding, I like how the mood of the track changes and at times the music becomes minimal to give Marks voice centre stage, another track I really like and it is no surprise that it was released as a single.
Following that we have "Invisible", which packs a punch with its synth sound palette and Mark's emotional vocal, I like how they use piano as well as synths in their music, they have the balance perfect.
"Is This How It Ends?" is of course the title track and what a song it is, piano and orchestration is the backdrop to a beautiful ballad executed perfectly, with Mark's vocals, truly outstanding, I love the synth melodies that kick in around 2 mins 30 secs, an undoubted highlight in this set of songs.
We return to the dancefloor on "The Edge", a sequencer fuelled track with a pulsing beat, almost a euro dance track from the 90s, again a track I like.
"Feel My Pain" takes you on a wonderful synthpop journey, with its upbeat nature, electro bass-line and sequencers join forces with some excellent synth sounds, catchy with some nice hooklines, a strong chorus, excellent once again.
Track 9 is called "Discovery", dark synth stabs and throbbing dance beat introduce the track before we are treated to some nice Pad sounds and Mark excels with his vocals again, reminded me of the darker side of Depeche Mode, definitely a different type of track, however, its sits nicely on this album, through headphones this track is awesome.
The album closes with the track "All About Me", the drum intro reminded me of Joy Division/New Order, the BPM is up for this one, some amazing drum work on this song, very electronic, very different, very good.
What a fantastic album this is, it is awash with Strong lyrics strong melodies and the combination of Rob's music and Mark's vocals, it is quite varied too, yes there are Erasure influences, however, that is kept to a minimum as they certainly have their own identity.
10/10
The album is available as a 2CD from Lexer Music here:
https://www.lexermusic.com/weareshelter/shelter-is-this-how-it-ends-deluxe-2cd-albumFound out more about Shelter here:
https://www.facebook.com/Shelterofficialmusic
