As the outward aggressiveness of emo became the main musical lingo for 2000s-era youth, there was something more compelling about post-Britpop, the genre’s more subdued, introspective, and sophisticated offshoot from across the pond. Think bands like Travis, Elbow, Athlete, Snow Patrol, Keane, and yes, Coldplay, who further defined its sound and prominence throughout the decade. On this account, Evan Ballard and Klepstoter’s The Shadows Made from Light was an absolute treat from first listen.
Awash in saturated guitars, moody piano lines, and soft, undulating vocals, Shadows not only pays excellent homage to 2000s era post-Britpop but also recontextualizes it for present-day listeners.
Bright Spots in Dark Places: Diving Into The Shadows Made From Light
“Eagle Fly” kicks off the album on a soaring note: a cross between Elbow’s “Powder Blue” and Travis’ “Flowers in the Window,” Ballard’s fine-tuned composition permeates gently akin to streaks of warm sunlight on a somber winter day. This mood is sustained across the rest of the album albeit with a handful of interesting sonic detours: “Release” plays like a slightly groovier sequel to Aqualung’s underrated “Good Times Gonna Come,” while “In My Mind” and “Lidocaine” provide a boost of tension with their drum-heavy arrangements. Elsewhere, Radiohead’s In Rainbows sound palette is echoed in “Float” (you could almost hear Thom Yorke’s iconic whine as soon as the vocal kicks in) and “Where We Start” riffs off of the iconic “Weird Fishes / Arpeggi” to solid results.
On the other hand, “Cleft” and “Be a Part of Me” are sprinkled with light electronic flourishes, the latter starting off with plonking melodic lines à la Vanessa Paradis’ “Que fait la vie ?” before launching into a funky guitar solo a minute and thirty seconds into the song, no doubt courtesy of Klepstoter’s — né Michele Caccavale — nimble licks. Precisely a track prior, “Virare” puts Caccavale’s playing at the front and center; that it is titled after an Italian verb whose one of its English translations is “to change color” smartly alludes to the album’s title and cover art and aptly segues into the album’s more guitar-driven second half.
It’s in the album’s closing track, though, where things get really interesting. Breaking away from the largely relationship-themed tracks, “Like Father Like Son” is a plea for a chance at breaking generational trauma (“Tell me everything’s alright,” goes the song’s haunting hook) set to a slow and steady build-up of acoustic guitar, piano, and drum that eventually swells and fades into an electric guitar outro. If there’s any complaint, it’s that extending the instrumentation would have rendered a stronger, meatier finish; perhaps it’s only fitting, then, that the number is followed by minutes of silence and an unlisted hidden track (a very Britpop move, as it were) where Ballard’s unadorned voice is draped in little more than just a stark guitar accompaniment and barely-there strings, delivering a wink of sorts with the line “And if you fade out, I hope you merge with me.” It’s the most befitting sentiment to cap off over 50 minutes of an utterly immersive, engrossing listening experience.
It would be interesting to see how Ballard and Caccavale’s trajectories unfold and diverge beyond their tried-and-true musical chemistry (this album is the pair’s second collaboration after “Pale Blue Dot,” a track off of Apricity, Ballard’s sophomore release). In the meantime, The Shadows Made from Light is concrete proof that, just like The Cardigans’ flirtation with country and Americana as filtered through the Swedish lens in 2003’s Long Gone Before Daylight, often times the way to add a worthwhile canon to a dormant genre is to quietly subvert it from the outside, ever with a lot of sincerity and heart.
The Shadows Made from Light is available on all streaming platforms, including Spotify. For more Klepstoter and Evan Ballard, head over to their Instagram accounts.
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