Album Review: The Neon Skyline by Andy Shauf

Andy Shauf found his strength in the cozy confines of The Party, his Polaris Music Prize-shortlisted 2016 breakthrough, but even after his subsequent skyrocket to acclaim, his world hasn't gotten much bigger — and yet, he's all the better for it.   The Neon Skyline isn't so much a big leap as a quiet shuffle down the street. The Party featured a series of loosely connected stories about the happenings of a single house party, while The Neon Skyline tells the story of a single night at a bar, framing Shauf's nameless protagonist. But ….

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Andy Shauf is a songwriter who can find memorable stories in places most people would never bother to look. On 2016's The Party, he created a compelling and powerful song cycle from the interactions of the guests at a party in a small Canadian town. The album won enough acclaim to be short-listed for the Polaris Music Prize, and four years later Shauf has come out with a similarly memorable follow-up, Neon Skyline.

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Bars are sanctuaries filled with all kinds of confessions. In Andy Shauf's case, his place of refuge—at least figuratively speaking—is The Skyline diner in Toronto—the setting for his sixth release. Throughout the years, the Saskatchewan singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist has sharpened his ability to write albums that feel like reading prose.

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Andy Shauf writes songs full of drinking and dancing, deep conversation and inside jokes, close friends and old flames--and he's having a miserable time. Since his 2009 debut, the soft-spoken singer-songwriter has grown increasingly adept at telling stories from the vantage of the next morning's hangover: plagued by regret, lingering on moments of unease stitched through an otherwise pleasant evening. Like Phoebe Bridgers, he incorporates bits of dialogue into his lyrics that illustrate not just how his characters speak but also how they really feel about each other.

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Songs are just songs, but sometimes there's magic in the mix, a spark that brings the words and music to life and threads the songs together in sublime ways. Back in 2016 — the best year for music of all time according to British comedian James Acaster — Andy Shauf released The Party, which absolutely fizzes with magic. Then, in 2018, Shauf's band Foxwarren put out their self-titled debut, which basically sounds like a looser, rockier, Andy Shauf album.

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