Single Review | Art Schop | In the Street
6 Aug 20
Spacey synths set the stage for moody piano chords that declare themselves with long dramatic pauses stretched between major-to-minor changes. It feels very decadent and theatrical in the best way – Like Hedwig and the Angry Inch meets The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but with all the high-concept performance camp and none of the cheese. The beat comes in… a minimalist, vintage drum-machine vibe. The voice crawls out of the speakers, slithering with a very Bowie-esque desperation. In the Street is the first single from Starguide, the forthcoming album from UK-born/Brooklyn-based musician Art Schop. It’s a thrilling slow ride through dark lyrical imagery that keeps the listener firmly grasped in its darkly seductive orbit.
Love me
Come see how lovely
In the street a star has fallen
Fallen
and the masked man to see what inside is burning
lovely
The chorus takes a hopeful and delicate turn, with even spacier synth strings and a soft doubled vocal that conveys a beauty and an optimism that stands in lush contrast to the decadent dusk of the verses.
A star has fallen
The last line is delivered like the final gasp life at the end of the first act of a moody musical. It certainly whets the appetite for the next act, the full album Starguide, which the artist describes as a “cosmology.” Look for high-concept and a further exploration of a truly innovative and intergalactic sound. David Bowie may be no longer with us, but his influence lives on in Art Schop, giving Schop a high diving board from which he explores his own unique and poetic performance identity