Way I Feel
Winnipeg, Manitoba, is a very cold place. Perhaps Remy Shand's debut, recorded in his Winnipeg bedroom, is his effort to cozify the Canadian city. It's a warm slice of the vintage soul that's been popularized by artists likeD'AngeloandMaxwell, replete with shimmering musical touches--a clavinet here, a Rhodes there. Shand's falsetto often mimics, and at times evokes, soul legends, though his sometimes skinny delivery lacks both the pelvic thrust and the world-on-my-shoulders weight of the genre's finest. Songs like "Take a Message" are winsome, if wispy, in their romantic sentiments. "Rocksteady" features lovely instrumentation punctuating Shand's vocals, while the heftier "Liberate" finds him rebelling against an unnamed enemy (the Mounties?). Pleasant, but not always convincing.--Cristina Restrepo