Sheppard - "Zora"
It's a new day and a new chapter for Sheppard
The Australian Indie Pop siblings are back, but now it’s just the three of them. The Sheppard siblings (George, Amy, and Emma) have always been the band’s core, but with their move to Nashville last year (2023), they lost their guitarist (Jason Bovino) and drummer (Dean Gordon) who, presumably, elected to stay in Australia. At their height, Sheppard was a six-piece; the other dedicated guitarist (Michael Butler) left in 2019.
It was the full six-piece which originally caught my attention around the time of their debut. Say whatever you want about Pop music, but “Geronimo (Bombs Away)” was a bop!1 If you’re not sure who Sheppard is, odds are good you’ve heard that song.
Zora is Sheppard’s fourth full-length album, following 2021’s Kaleidoscope Eyes, which I rated Green. The album is named after the trio’s grandmother, and the band illuminated the story behind the name in an interview with Sweety High:2
As we were navigating some tough personal times as a family, the themes of resilience and optimism naturally permeated through the songs we were writing for this album—each one a beacon of hope, a call to hold on through times of darkness with the hope that a new dawn was just around the corner. Our inspiration through all of this was our Croatian grandmother, whose attitude to life has always been something of a beacon for us. She has faced some tremendous challenges in her life, yet her enduring smile and radiant energy never dimmed. When it came time to name the album we had written, in wanting to honor her and our Croatian heritage, we turned to Google Translate out of curiosity to see what "dawn" would be in Croatian. The result? Our grandma's name, "ZORA," stared back at us triumphantly on the screen.
The band go on to say that the album is meant to illustrate “power of perseverance through dark times” and “the promise of a new dawn”. In an interview with Atwood Magazine, George stated that Zora is “a definitive reintroduction to Sheppard” — which is fitting, given the stated thematic direction as well as the literal transplanting the siblings completed last year which, again, forcibly reshaped the band.
With all of this in mind, I have to say that the album’s intro is spot-on. Intro track “Zora” is a minute-and-a-half instrumental with nature sounds and rising instrumentation which sounds like dawn.3
And then the album leaps directly into “Daylight”, an anthemic love song with thick, lush electronic instrumentation which perfectly defies all expectations I had for this album. With the slimmer roster, I had expected that perhaps the music on Zora would be a little pared down from what I’ve come to expect from Sheppard in years past. But, if anything, the compositions here are more robust than what we got in Kaleidoscope Eyes.
The anthemic energy that the album launches with lasts through the end of track six. “Love Like That” and “Nothing Without You” slow down the pace for a mid-album break, with the latter infusing a touch of ‘Nashville Sound’4 — it’s not overwhelming, though, and probably only really noticeable if you’re familiar with Country music and the specific feel of Nashville production.5 I complain about it on Country albums, but it feels a bit novel in a pop track.
Just a bit. Don’t nobody get any ideas. We’ve already had way too many pop artists making Country albums as a fad.
“Running Straight to You” picks the second half of the album up with another energetic banger, and the remainder of the album ranges up-and-down, but has a lot of relaxed mid-tempo songs. The album ends with a mirror of its intro — “Play On The Moon” is a downbeat-but-energetic song which seems to be looking into the future and feels semi-mournful, like the sunset of a really great day; outro track “Sumrak” (“Twilight” in Croatian), is a brief, descending instrumental which finishes with a short voicemail from the album’s namesake, Grandma Zora.
Even at its lowest points, Zora is infused with hope and determination. It is easily one of the brightest, tonally, albums I’ve reviewed this year. Or, honestly, ever. And while nobody wants to read happy poetry, as my old poetry professor always said, this is one of those areas where music is vastly different from raw poetry. Zora is full of uplifting compositions.
If you need music to lift your spirits, or maybe a positive soundtrack to aid your recovery, definitely give this a listen. What it lacks in complexity, it makes up for in heart.
Rating: Teal Blue
This song, with the full six-piece, also featured on an episode of Girl Meets World, which was the primary ‘everything is okay’ binge-on-repeat show in our household during the pandemic.
Not an outlet I’ve heard of, but maybe that’s because they seem to target Gen Z and I’m an old man Millennial in my late 30s.
In a much different sense than how Alcest’s album celebrates the same daily transition. See last week’s review of Alcest’s Les Chants de l’Aurore.
Originally, this term referred to a specific Country subgenre. More recently, the term has been used as a derogative descriptor for specific elements of mainstream Country.
It is wild to me that this supersedes inherent divisions between record companies.