Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

Shy Child

Summer

Label: Wall of Sound Release Date: 10/09/2007

27441
TheBoyDeadly by TheBoyDeadly September 14th, 2007

If I was in Shy Child, I don’t think I’d be the sort of person who asked too much of life. I think I’d be content to bowl around the bars of New York in a dumb neon haze, showing off in front of Latino girls, eating nuclear Chinese food and getting progressively more blottko until it seemed like a good idea to write a song about ‘Summer’. Summer is a season. A season called summer.

If you remain confused as to what exactly ‘summer’ is, Shy Child are here to clarify the concept by throwing a load of words about it at a major-minor chord progression and seeing what sticks. Annoyingly, it's mid-September and the holidays are gone, so we'll have to X our fingers and see what they come up with. "Sun". "Teenage sex". "Marijuana". Shy Child are convinced that these things all happen in the summer. That may be, but where does it leave our protagonists? "With a heavy heart, with a heavy heart."

Wist, then. Here, Shy Child write about summer like Lostprophets would if they weren't trying to be Don Henley. Hardly the most cunning of ploys, and without coming on militant about nostalgic, teenage heart-pop, it’s a ploy that doesn’t quite come off. Maybe because the euphoric parts falter and retreat just outside euphoria, or the lyrics aren't laden enough to carry the poignant, red-eyed nostalgia of an implicitly fading adolescence. Of course it could be due to the fact that this is, essentially, pop-punk played on a keytar.

Alive to what to expect from summer, I was disillusioned to find that I had no real need for this song. An emotional poverty only compounded by the six remixes included on sides C, D, E, F, G and H. Thankfully, side B is a new song called ‘Murder Capital’ and it’s at least 150 per cent more fun than its pouting, homesick sister. Listen to that, here.

Is that Hilary Duff in the video? No; it's a cowboy midget playing drums.

Video!

  • 4
    's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing


  • Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alternative must sees



Left-arrow

The Go! Team at Camden Electric Ballroom, Camden, Wed 12 Sep

Mobback
27497
27454

Joy Division

Closer (reissue)

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024

  • 106145
  • news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143

    news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141
  • news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139

    Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138
  • Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137

    Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
  • Festival Review


    Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019

  • 106135
MORE


    news


    The Neptune Music Prize 2016 - Vote Now

  • 103918
  • Takeover


    The Winner Takes It All

  • 50972

    Takeover


    10 Things To Not Expect Your Record Producer To...

  • 93724
  • review


    The Mars Volta - Deloused In The Comatorium

  • 4317

    review


    Sonic Youth - Nurse

  • 6044
  • feature


    New Emo Goth Danger? My Chemical Romance confro...

  • 89578

    feature


    DiS meets Justice

  • 27270
  • news


    Our Independent music filled alternative to New...

  • 104374
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2025 DROWNED IN SOUND