Album review – Holding On To Let Go by Shopfires (2024) (Subjangle)
Perhaps buoyed by the success of his eponymous album, which was released on Subjangle at the beginning of March 2024, and maybe even beginning to wonder whether the gloriously self-effacing Bandcamp tagline of ‘DIY pop recorded directly into a cheap laptop’ is entirely appropriate, Leicester-based Neil Hill and his Shopfires project are back again with another superb album, Holding on to Let Go.
In essence, the album is essentially more of the same, a fact worthy of celebration in the case of this emerging artist. As such, Springs, What You Found and I Am an Exit, twinkle gently with jangly riffs, echoing the spatial, subtle gaze-inflected dream-pop aesthetic of acts like Conflict at Serenity Pools and Darks0ft.
However, Shopfires truly excel when it moves within the various ambits of beautiful jangly guitar pop that Hill seems to create at will. Here, the Brighter, Field Mice, Heavenly influenced, jangly indie-pop of The Pessimist, Family of the Year, Limerence, and the simply superlative stand out of Into The Sun could well make him a new darling to the Sarah Records crowd, while the added quirky idiosyncrasies of the Television Personalities and trademark Issues enhance Arsonist for Hire and a Certain Age.
I am certain that Hill and his Shopfires project cannot continue to be so prolific; however, let’s just enjoy riding the jangly indie-pop wave for as long as it lasts!
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