Shapeshifting

There are crafted, uplifting songs, but also haunting, ambient undercurrents hinting at everything from Art Of Noise to The xx to Fever Ray. [May 2011, p.103]

On Shapeshifting, their first album for Paper Bag Records, Young Galaxy have found a sound that lives up to McCandless's compelling voice (it seems Ramsay has been reduced to a secondary role, save for opener "The Angels Are Surely Weeping"), and it provides an overall sensation very unlike their first two attempts.

Shapeshifting may sound very contemporary, but it's not in the least derivative.

It's thus a relief to see something, anything, resembling a coherent full-length emerge from that group of musicians, and for it to be as good as Shapeshifting is. More than anything, though, this is a success for Young Galaxy, who prove themselves far more versatile and open than they ever did before, and, as such, are likely to win over a new whole new audience.

The result is Young Galaxy's finest record, and while it's impossible to say if Lissvik made the band better, he definitely made them more interesting and relevant.

Shapeshifting is an album that grows on you, as repeated listens reveal the nooks and crannies of these charming elecro-pop tunes.

Shapeshifting isn't just something from which to go forward; it's an absolute success in everything it tries. I only wish Young Galaxy had pushed a bit more, because there's no doubt that this could have been so much more.

The result is Young Galaxy's third album, Shapeshifting, which retains the band's new wave and synth-pop influences while also dabbling in both more electronic and more earthly sounds and textures, frequently inhabiting the same tropical-pop terrain of bands like Vampire Weekend and jj.