Earlier this year, House Shoes appeared on Shots Fired. When asked if he liked any pop music whatsoever, the only thing he replied was Phil Beaudreau. It’s a slight stretch to call this pop because it never genuflects into anything that we’d consider modern pop music. No auto-tune or trap snares, ratchet minimalism, compressed sounds or thirsty sheen. It’s essentially soul music, but makes none of the overtly retro gestures usually found in Cee-Lo, Aloe Blacc or the other artists continuing to re-work the Motown catalogue.
Credit Dawuan Parker, the keys behind most of Aftermath’s best beats during the mid-to-late 00s, for the production. It sounds almost like Koushik, Caribou, or something off of Warp. There’s a symphonic element, but it resists the swooning over-indulgent orchestration that usually occurs when artists try to flex their virtuosity. Beaudreau is an excellent singer too. He has enviable range, but never overreaches with falsetto or baby-baby-baby let me extend this syllable until you pass out vocal takes. “Fly” is just a gorgeous song with a video that incorporates Aladdin, The Neverending Story, 8 and a 1/2 and the Christopher Reeve Superman, which is a more meaningful Superman I think. If you never heard Beaudreau and Parker’s Ether, there’s time for recourse. In the meantime, “Fly” finds them living up to Cee-Lo’s and Icarus’ wisdom: it’s about getting high but not too high.
