Hold Up My Left Arm

Shapes & Sizes “Too Late For Dancing”

Shapes & Sizes have a searching, curious sound — their best songs tend to wander, or excitedly push at their own boundaries. Caila Thompson-Hannant, the group’s better and most prominent vocalist, has a brave quality in her voice that often makes the music seem like an adventure expedition into the unknown. Their third album, Candle To Your Eyes, is their best and most surprising yet. They’ve somehow found a way to merge their expansive art rock sensibility with a sort of ersatz sultry funk. “Too Late For Dancing,” the record’s most impressive track, is overtly sexy and surprisingly fluid in form, slinking its way through an ever-shifting, but always wide-open negative space. Thompson-Hannant sounds amazing here — quirky and bold as ever, but now also very soulful and seductive. They’ve discovered something rather distinct and brilliant here, a zone not unlike the xx’s subdued sex pop, but far more detailed in texture, and far more airy in tone than claustrophobic.

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