Album Review: Shirt by Porches

Shirt's tracklist and lyric sheet read like a cloud map of the American Imagination; sonically, it ricochets between stripped-down ballads, country-twanged bops and post-punk sound waves that smack you like a dog pile -- harsh and heavy, but oh-so comforting once you succumb to the weight of it all. A delectably unhinged coming-of-age homage, Shirt unfolds as a ruthless succession of trying-on and discarding. Throughout the record, Maine slips in and out of sweet and sinister armour, dueling dichotomies like imaginary dragons.

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Since establishing Porches in the early 2010s, Aaron Maine has taken the project through stylistic shifts including angsty indie rock, sleek, synth pop-leaning indie electronica, and ('90s childhood influences) pop-punk and grunge, while allowing elements from limited other styles to seep in. Tying his output all together is the distressed, melancholy demeanor of the self-loathing. This overriding clouded mood and tendency toward sound evolution continue on his sixth full-length, simply titled Shirt. The fact that it's his loudest, most volatile album yet was due in large part to his moving his recording equipment out of his New York apartment and into a dedicated space for the first time..

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With Shirt, his latest release under the Porches moniker, Maine continues to explore the complexities of modern life through a soundscape that is as enigmatic as it is inviting. The album sees Maine honing his songwriting style with a clarity that often feels elusive in his previous works. Shirt is a sonic journey that, while familiar, finds new emotional depths in Maine's repertoire, yet it may leave some long-time fans yearning for the rawness of earlier releases.

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