ALBUM REVIEW: The Shape Of Everything – SOM

Heavy shoegazers SOM had a breakout 2021, endearing themselves to fans with their Awake EP and shimmering BILLIE EILISH cover. With their latest album The Shape Of Everything, they’re looking to expand their “doom pop” palette even further. It’s very much a product of the last two years; perhaps not in the expected sense, though. With their plans to enter the studio in 2020 thrown into disarray, the band were instead forced to redefine their process and how they approached writing. The end result was Awake, and the creative process from it fed into The Shape Of Everything, notably its balancing of grittier guitar parts with melodic, often airy vocal lines. 

The Shape Of Everything is a deeply introspective album, one borne of necessity given the circumstances around its creation, and this is reflected throughout its eight tracks. Opening with Moment, SOM don’t exactly play their cards close to their chest. Right from the outset, the crunching guitars set the scene with heavy but not oppressive tones. Synths lend an expansiveness to it, with vocalist Will Benoit crooning over top. Animals follows in a similar vein, its shoegazing, winding guitar lines entwined with breathy melodies and slow but not lethargic drum work.

Center features repeating motifs that, despite the relaxed delivery, find a way to latch onto eardrums and are even somewhat memorable. It’s not until the halfway point, however, that the band ever shift out of low gear. Shape picks up speed with a churning riff, though once again the vocals are breathy and airy. This time though there’s something of a sense of urgency in their explorative sound, rather than simply meandering as they have done. It’s a welcome change of pace that neatly rounds off the first half of the album. 

Tension and release is another element that SOM explore throughout – take Animals’ instrumental outro that ratchets up the intensity without truly resolving it, for example. Similarly, Clocks begins with serene ambience before the guitars shift into a swirling, tense storm. It ebbs and flows, with a soft, slowly crescendoing second half that builds from a guitar, adding layers until the chorus returns. It’s another example of their careful use of dynamics, ensuring each emotional moment is presented at its most impactful.

Bluntly, though, SOM aren’t doing anything particularly new with The Shape Of Everything. Their shoegaze may be infused with heavier guitars but they don’t hold much weight, and the vocals can feel monotonous with a lack of variety in texture and tone. Recurring motifs and more memorable hooks, like those of Center and Wrong provide highlights on an album that otherwise passes by neither offensively nor enrapturing. 

There are undoubtedly some good ideas and interesting moments, particularly when they opt for more defined guitar passages rather than simply swirling chords, as on Shape or Heart Attack. Ultimately though, The Shape Of Everything encompasses its name in more ways than one, offering a meandering, somewhat formless collection of songs that’s by no means bad, but offers very little in the way of memorability or staying power. 

Rating: 6/10

The Shape Of Everything is set for release on January 21st via Pelagic Records.

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