The Neon Skyline

Shauf's ability to imbue his characters with plenty of nuance, quirk, charm and flaw in brisk scenes is impressive enough, but his need to craft full worlds around them put him head and shoulders above his peers.

The Neon Skyline is another pleasant journey lovingly crafted by Shauf. He has once again proven himself to be up there with maple syrup, Ryan Gosling and Schitt’s Creek as one of Canada’s greatest exports.

The Neon Skyline is one of those albums that will probably never achieve the popularity with the influencers and loud crowds that one sometimes lazily associates with a “successful” artist. Instead, it’s more likely to be enjoyed by hardcore fans in a small venue eschewing the limelight for a communal lament of the lives of the narrator, Charlie, Rose and Claire.

Modest reservations aside, this is more top-drawer stuff from Shauf, as we’ve come to expect. Drink deep.

Quite simply, there are precious few indie songwriters who can impress as easily as Andy Shauf, and Neon Skyline is the work of an artist delivering on their significant promise.

Even at his most open, there's still this sense that his character-driven songs wouldn't exist without revealing the backstory of his Canadian roots. His sentiments are more palpable and poignant, but his approach is as casual as always.

The Neon Skyline stands up as a great collection of moodily atmospheric songs. [Mar 2020, p.120]

Using minimal detail, the individual songs work both separately and as chapters of a larger piece. Shauf performed, arranged, and produced every song on The Neon Skyline. Thus, there is a unity to the whole affair—and a tenderness.

The Neon Skyline doesn’t require deep investment in its narrative to enjoy. Still, the closer you listen, the more rewarding it becomes.

A remarkably evolved variety of break-up album, one whose match of melodicism and bruised romanticism makes it somehow suggestive of Lou Reed's Berlin as rewritten by Paul Simon. [Feb 2020, p.33]