SHINE

The glimmer of light in a stray cat's eye, the ebb and flow of ocean waves upon the shore, the bright streak of a comet across the night sky, the unconditional love between a mother and child: these are some of the poetic elements that sparkle at the core of Shine from Sean Nicholas Savage, the follow-up to 2020's Life is Crazy. Where that album explored the crushing beauty of life, Shine is a record about recapturing the will to live after a period of sadness and stagnancy, and the return to positivity and hope wrapped up in music that adds a sense of rhythmic guitar-based folk intimacy to Savage's hallmark ebullient avant-pop.??Savage says he was leaning into his "Tatsuro Yamashita and Elliott Smith fandom" for Shine, a mix that immediately comes through vividly on opener "Feel Like A Child," which was the first song he wrote for the record. The pandemic had taken both an emotional and artistic toll on Savage, sapping his ability to be creative.