Do you think you know what Shy Boys sound like?

Each album feels different, and the audience gets the pleasure of listening in while Shy Boys experiment with and master new sounds. On their new album, Talk Loud, our boys are clearly so in sync with each other that they are able to explore getting out of sync in a way that feels right. The album is fun and scary at the same time. Right when you start to feel comfortable you turn a corner into a different dimension. They pan vocals, take audible breaths. 

Touring can be a grind, and it can also feel like summer camp. It magnifies and affects your relationships with your bandmates, with yourself, and what home means to you. With Bell House, the tight-knit Shy Boys spent about a "year-and-a-half cheek-to-cheek in a conversion van touring the country," recalls lead singer, Collin Rausch. Arriving home from this intense journey together and separating from each other physically aligned with some personal and musical perspective changes. The outcome is an album that grapples with attachment.

"Fraid I Might Die" and "Trash" reference the universal passage of time. On "Fraid I Might Die" the synth sounds are airy and sharp. The accompaniment builds, and then cuts to just keys, the lyrics repeating all throughout, like a chant. The more you exist, the closer you are to ceasing to exist; living is dying. The lyrics of "Trash" seem at first to be about daily life, but upon a closer listen, it stretches beyond the narrator's house and into the whole world and the painful overwhelming endless cycle of consumerism. Another standout moment, "View From The Sky," is undeniable proof that bands can still write hits organically. Every sound is imbued with emotion, every flick of the wrist is meaningful. 

Shy Boys are like musical astronauts, with instrumentation from the beyond. Talk Loud has the heart-string-yanking ability of music concocted in a laboratory, but it still feels heavily human. It's complicated, it's swirly, it surrounds you and extends itself deep into your brain. Lyrics about malaise are juxtaposed with joyful sounds. The record is cinematic, sparkly, jumpy, and spooky. At times Talk Loud connotes a children's TV program or puppet show: haunting and funny become one. 

Shy Boys' third full-length album, Talk Loud, is now shipping from the Polyvinyl Store.