Andy Shauf

Andy Shauf – Norm (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 36:22 minutes | 392 MB | Genre: Alternative, Indie
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Anti – Epitaph

2023 release. Hailed as “a gifted storyteller” (NPR Music) for 2016’s The Party and 2020’s The Neon Skyline, Andy Shauf writes albums that unfold like short fiction, full of colorful characters, fine details and a rich emotional depth. With Norm, however, Shauf has slyly deconstructed and reshaped the style for which he’s been celebrated, elevating his songwriting with intricate layers and perspectives, challenging himself to find a new direction. Under the guise of an intoxicating collection of jazz-inflected romantic ballads, his storytelling has become decidedly more oblique, hinting at ominous situations and dark motivations.
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Andy Shauf – Wilds (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 26:39 minutes | 306 MB | Genre: Indie Folk, Singer-Songwriter
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Anti – Epitaph

Wilds, a surprise new album that offers a peek into Andy Shauf’s creative process and how the multi-instrumentalist first begins building his songs into more ornately arranged final products.
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Andy Shauf – The Party (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 37:29 minutes | 424 MB | Genre: Alternative, Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Anti – Epitaph

The Party is the ANTI- Records debut for this Canadian songwriter, who grew up in small-town Saskatchewan.

Awkward characters show up “Early to the Party,” and either reveal life-changing secrets (“To You”) or try their hardest to reveal nothing at all (“The Magician”). In “a city the size of a dinner plate,” everyone knew the guy who keeled over dead after smoking what he promised would be his last pack of cigarettes (“Alexander All Alone”). The girl dancing by herself, unselfconsciously, in the middle of the room, with the “Eyes of Them All” upon her. One moment you’re dancing with someone who bears an uncanny resemblance to your ex (“Martha Sways”), and later you start slagging your best friend as way of endearing yourself to his recently dumped ex (“Quite Like You”).

Did that all really happen in the same night? It certainly happens in the space of this tightly narrated thirty-eight minutes, all set to ornate arrangements of fuzzed-out guitars, string sections, clarinets and dreamy synths, all draped over delicate piano, acoustic guitars and rainy-day drums.
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