ALBUM REVIEW: Songs Of Shame – Arctic Plateau

Italian post-rock and shoegaze band ARCTIC PLATEAU emerges from an eight-year hiatus with Songs Of Shame, their third full-length album, and from the outset this one is set up as a gloomy affair. Songs Of Shame takes stock of sole member Gianluca Divirgilio’s struggles with self-doubt, pain, disillusion and guilt, and amplifies them through a range of influences and inspirations. The result though is an album that struggles with identity.

The first two tracks on the record – Song Of Shame and lead single Saturn Girl – are remarkably similar. Utilising a near-identical jangly guitar hook, it’s a wonder ARCTIC PLATEAU separated these songs at all. The fact that each one runs for just a shade under five minutes apiece means this album drags out of the starting gate. The content itself, while affable enough and belying the lyrical themes – more on that later – invokes several comparisons; there’s something quite DIRE STRAITS about the latter of these tracks, and the mix throughout is reminiscent of the likes of MY BLOODY VALENTINE, with vocals so far back in the mix they toe the line of being unintelligible.

Dark Rising Sun begins to introduce more texture to proceedings, complete with brooding spoken word segments and a solid crescendo that sets the toes tapping to say the least. It’s an energy that continues into We’re Never Falling Down, where the star of the show is the guitar work. Combining lush picked passages with hefty, driving chords makes this one of the standout tracks on Songs Of Shame and is perhaps the strongest example of Divirgilio’s songwriting prowess.

From here, the album takes a turn into new influences that one may not expect on a 21st Century shoegaze record. The Bat could very feasibly be a long-lost STONE ROSES offcut, this one boasting an arena-sized chorus that wouldn’t feel out of place at a festival while the upbeat instrumentation again deserts the idea that this is an album about suffering. Meanwhile, Venezia sees the reverb-drenched guitar reaching U2 levels of layering, but overall still providing a suitably low-key feel, and it’s easy to get washed away by the lapping instrumentation. Of particular interest is the final, euphoric phrase from the guitars and the pounding, if slightly pedestrian drumming, that gives a real sense of hope amidst the glumness.

Frustratingly, L’Arsenale opens with one of the most interesting, textured and differing sounds on the whole album, but then does nothing with it, instead serving as a teasing pastiche of what could have been. The accordion and strings arrangement feels spectacularly European, and the sombre tone is utterly engrossing.

Running a final tally of 10 songs across 40 minutes or thereabouts, Songs Of Shame has its moments, but ultimately is not a record that feels particularly memorable. There are flashes of brilliance, and you can certainly see what ARCTIC PLATEAU are gunning for, but the muddled influences and the ideas not quite flowing into one another as cohesively as you might like creates a product that is very hit-or-miss.

Rating: 6/10

Songs Of Shame is out now via Shunu Records.

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