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Twin Shadow’s strong ’80s vibe never overshadows his 21st-century creativity. Jason Nocito
Twin Shadow’s strong ’80s vibe never overshadows his 21st-century creativity.
Jason Nocito
When George Lewis Jr., aka Twin Shadow, announced he was signing with Warner Bros. Records last fall, he half-joked about grabbing coffee with his new label-mate Prince. They'd have plenty to talk about: Like Prince, Lewis is a talented multi-instrumentalist (guitar/keyboard/drums) with a bold artistic vision. (Also like Prince, he's a sexy motherfucker; both of Twin Shadow's two acclaimed indie albums prominently feature his striking mug staring soulfully into the camera.) His major-label debut, Eclipse , is out in March and boasts the most vital work of the 31-year-old singer-songwriter's career. Recorded in part at a converted chapel in LA's Hollywood Forever Cemetery, it continues the strong synth-pop vibe of his previous efforts without descending into throwback New Wave mimicry. Much of that stems from Lewis' own sense of ambiguity. “I've always felt alien and everyman at the same time,” says the Dominican-born, Florida-raised, Los Angeles-based (we're done, we promise) musician. “I'm not rock and roll, I'm not hip hop, I'm not R & B.” That in-between-ness makes for a singular sound, one that lets him experiment with genres at will. It's also allowed him to remix everyone from Sky Ferreira to N.E.R.D. His mad science is on full display on the album's recombinant second single, the melancholy but assured “Turn Me Up.” The power-ballad reverb wouldn't be out of place in a Top Gun montage, but Lewis' hybridizing touch makes it unmistakably the sound of a new millennium—or, to stick with the Prince theme, of a new power generation.
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