Porches Delivers a Grimy and Surreal Album in 'Shirt'
Photo: Jason Al-Taan
Porches’ highly-anticipated sixth studio album Shirt has arrived and it is a gunky, grungy, glitchy coming-of-age surrealist gem. This album is a distorted and alluring fantasy from top to bottom and Aaron Maine’s sound as Porches is as raucous and sentimental as ever.
Shirt is a vulnerable, grimy project that thrusts the listener into the throes of adolescence in suburbia. The opening track “Return of the Goat” is a playful primer to the album, driven by a drum beat that sounds like it’s coming out of the local factory smokestack.
Immediately after, the listener is thrown into the thrashing and intoxicating “Sally.” This song is a chaotic and drunken see-saw of surreal grunge and soft-sung poesy, doused in Porches'signature autotune. The verses are quiet but intense, while the chorus rings out with crunching guitars that hit you over the head just like Sally would. Porches' lyrical worldbuilding is in full force by track two and his distinctive drum production remains present throughout the rest of the album.
Shirt is full of abstract lyricism and unique songwriting, which is on full display in the album’s lead single “Rag.” The song reads like a Dalí painting with lyrics like, “I push the bullet in the fruit meat through a cow / I recognize you from the pound tonight / I really hope I see you ‘round tonight.” Porches' callback to animals—goats, cows, dogs, pigs—runs throughout the album and evokes the primal urges that live deep in one’s anima. He also touches on themes of spirituality and religion throughout the project in songs like “Bread Believer,” “Itch,” and “Joker.” The dichotomy of animal and God is one that Porches explores at times in an absurdist yet profound way. It’s a concept that contributes to the bizarre and unreal dynamic of the record as a whole.
There’s a sense of sobering awareness that is realized as the listener ventures through the album, caught up in the dreaminess and dramaticism of tracks like “Precious” and “School” that wind down to a clear conclusion with the final three songs. “Voices In My Head” is a country-influenced track that introduces the end of Shirt’s cinematic arc. Porches' melodramatic vocal performance on the refrain, “Now we’re all alone” feels like the curtain is just about to close, but not before he delivers a final ‘R-A-W-K’ rock anthem. The album’s penultimate track “USA” is as angsty as it gets. The guitar and drums are the stuff rock ‘n’ roll dreams are made of. The song ends on an eerie incantation, “Fifty God pills in my face / Now I’m hiding in your place / Wash my sins off in the lake / Singing, you and I were meant to be.”
Finally, the album concludes with a vulnerable piano-heavy ballad, “Music” which sees Porches pour out his heart and soul. “All my life / All I’ve known / All it was was rock ‘n’ roll” he sings, “And it was never meant to last / And I think it’s time to go / I pray to God the music takes me home.”
Shirt is a dizzying and blissful whirlwind that will shrink you down and build you back up. Maine’s sixth studio album as Porches is a testament to his growth as an artist and his depth as an individual. The New York-based artist is set to hit the road on the 'Shirt North American Tour' kicking off in Boston, MA on October 15.
Listen to Shirt below:
