Shirt - Porches: Review
Porches are a synth-pop outfit that have been at it for over a decade now. Shirt is the project's 6th album and first since 2021. I didn't cover the bands previous outing as I didn't really have much to say about it in the same way I do for records like 2020's Ricky Music and 2016's Pool. But with some of the singles released in the lead up to Shirt really grabbing my attention, I was excited to dig into what the record had to offer.
Those singles really are a great bunch that pop up around the middle of the record. Rag came first and it single-handedly spiked my attention for the record when it dropped. I think it's one of my favorite Porches tracks ever the way the meandering verses jangle back and forth just for the song to erupt into a killer hook is perfect. That track is also the very definition of playing it cool which Porches has always done well.
Joker came next and I have no fucking idea what the point of any of the lyrics in the song are but they're hilarious and it's one of the catchiest things I've heard all year. This stupid fucking amazing song has been stuck in my head for months. Finally there was Itch whose grinding guitar riffs just stretch out over the song in a way I find pretty irresistible.
Unfortunately, the only other period of any sustained success anywhere on the record comes with Bread Believer and Precious. The former starts with how funny of a phrase bread believer is but also delivers punchy drum machine and catchy refrains, even if the repetition on the chorus is a little deafening. By comparison, Precious is a slinkier more casual slacker indie rock anthem.
But the rest of the album is either forgettable like much of the second half of the album following the singles, or just flat-out weird. The album opens and closes with two of its most baffling moments. Opener Return Of The Goat seems like it's aiming for the swagger of a classic Porches song but the track itself is a bizarre glitchy synth-pop number that's completely disjointed from anything grounding. Closing track Music is one of those pretty cliche tributes to the idea of music itself. It's the kind of thing Porches would typically approach with sarcasm and irony and yet the track is seemingly played like a relatively straight love letter as a deadly serious piano ballad that's just supremely weird.
Shirt has a strong trio of singles and maybe one or two deep cuts I enjoy, but for the most part, this record oscillates between strange in a grating way and just plain old forgettable. Even on their best records it feels like Porches doesn't always have the sharpest knack for deep cuts and that may be the case more than ever before here. Despite it's highlights Shirt is an incredibly mixed bag that probably isn't recruiting any new fans. 5/10
For more indie check out my review of Waxahatchee's Tiger's Blood
