If the single “You Again” left me musing on the deft way that Verskotzi bridges the gap between the weight of rock music and the infectiousness of pop, then this full album, beguilingly named Shiring, opens up similar discussions about the mixing, merging, matching, and melding of many other sounds and styles.
But that is the beauty of the post-genre world that artists—well, the clever ones like Verskotzi, at least—get to express themselves in. Gone are the tribal demarcations and neat generic packages, the rules and expectations of the past. Thankfully, artists are free to skip through the musical landscape, picking up any shiny sonic thing or intriguing sound that takes their fancy and using it to build their mercurial tunes. And what’s more…that is precisely what he does.
On Shiring there are punchy, progressively minded, Prince-infused pop-rockers like the grammatically challenging “iii need more tiiiime!!!!” There are low-end dancefloor groovers, ones that blend clubland sass and old-school R&B swagger, such as “BEGGING FOR MORE” (man, my spellchecker is having a fit). Then there is the hippy-vibed, pastoral pop poise of “Generation After Generation.” There are Beatle-esque ballads, anthemic rock salvos, and even room for some chilled folk acoustica.
And that is just the tip of this mellifluous and manic, many-faceted, multi-genre, and musically marvellous iceberg. But rather than give too much away, this is where I leave you. You are on your own from here. The best way to experience an album such as this is to experience it for yourself and draw your own conclusions. Go on, jump in. What’s the worst that could happen?
