Edinburgh-based electro-pop troubadour Shears has joined the scores of musicians who made the most of lockdown to record new material. Ideas was recorded at home with Glaswegian producer Dunt and mixed by Matty Green, who previously worked with the likes of Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga.
The production is, as you’d expect, exceptionally clean – you could eat your dinner off it. The growling bass pulses to the minimalist beat and shimmering pad synths weave between Shears’ prominent vocals. The flourish of arcade 16-bit synths during the bridge are a welcome, if slightly incongruous, addition and provide some much needed texture before a very zeitgeist-y dropped beat chorus. Shears’ vocals sit comfortably in her range and the arrangement doesn’t demand much of the listener – the overarching feeling is one of effortlessness.
Ideas is a radio-friendly slice of highly contemporary pop that sounds like it could have come from any one of a number of American acts rather than a living room in Edinburgh. It will surely cement Shears as being a mainstay of the Scottish electronic pop scene.
Ideas is taken from Shears’ upcoming EP When You’re Around, out 11th September.
