Shelter - Ascend (album review)

Jean-Michel Jarre, Wolfgang Fluer, The Human League and Shelter are all acts that we will see live this year and Shelter's brandnew album 'Ascend' will make the wait that much easier.



Shelter – Ascend
A gem ****
Shelter’s new album ‘Ascend’ (out August 1st) is a much more mature yet still fun offering than their debut album ‘Emerge’ and both album titles are prophetic as they did indeed emerge and have truly ascended into a creative whirlwind and there seems no end in sight.

One can hear many influences of cult synth acts such as early Depeche, Erasure, OMD and even some ‘Schlager-esque’ hooks in the vein of Modern Talking. That being said, they don't sound like any of the aforementioned acts and indeed have their very own style.

There is a mellowness to the album that is very appealing and tracks like ‘Do you remember?’, ‘Home’ and ‘In the dark’ as well as the magical ‘Figaro’ are among the strongest on the album and carry Mark’s voice very well and show just how good the duo is.

Of course ‘Ascend’ has more typical Shelter moments on it such as ‘Icon’ which lyrically speaking has to be taken with a pinch of salt and the massively dance-able and poppy ‘This must be love’ and they all add to the charm of this sonic gem.

While I am not so keen on ‘Wot U said’ with its too retro sounding rap part, they are not ‘Lost in the 80s’ as one of their songs suggest.

‘Ascend’ is a really enjoyable album and addictive when on repeat – be warned xx


Thomas Janak

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