Album Review: Shook Twins

What We Do (Curlypinky)

By KAITIE TODD

[INDIE FOLK] Shook Twins' latest release, What We Do, doesn't capture the hazy pleasantness between wakefulness and sleep so much as the emotional instability of the dream. It rises and falls in and out of different moods—from bright and energetic one moment to dark and dangerous the next. "Toll Free" shows the group's poppier side, with a bouncy groove alternating between a plucky banjo, fiddle and mandolin, while the album's first single, "Shake," goes heavier, with swiftly intertwining strings weaving among stomps and Katelyn and Laurie Shook's haunting harmonies. "Daemons" follows suit, with sinister-sounding male vocals and flurries of lilting strings that sound beautiful and threatening at the same time. Album closer "Back Now" provides the perfect end to an epic adventure through the subconscious, building to an uplifting chorus. Although it occasionally has its sleepier moments, on the whole the album is approachable and infectious, more polished and less quirky than the Twins' previous releases. Like any good dream, What We Do leaves listeners energized rather than groggy.


SEE IT: The Shook Twins play Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., with Steve Poltz, on Friday, April 11. 9 pm. $15 general admission, $30 VIP. 21+.

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