Shields – Face To Face – sonicbreakfast

I love a good pub quiz.

A really tough question at one such quiz might be to name an act that have had both a top five single and have also released a song called ‘Face To Face’? By my geeky reckoning, there are perhaps three correct answers here.

Could you name any of the acts?

By the end of 2016, it’s entirely feasible that we might be able to add a fourth answer to the pub quiz question; for Shields, an act that have been gathering increased status and recognition up in Newcastle and wider afield across the North East are releasing a much anticipated album in February. As we build up to that, they issued a face paint feast of a video for their single, Face To Face, just before Christmas. It’s a cracker.

You don’t need to scratch too far beneath their surface to get a handle on where Shields are coming from. They inhabit that same sinewy pop space made popular in recent years by the likes of Everything Everything. It’s no surprise to discover that they’re considered an influence. But, where Everything Everything are sometimes prone to drowning under the weight of their art, you also get a sense, from the evidence heard within Face To Face at least, that Shields are not afraid to surface for a bit of air when the pop pool becomes too murky.

For many of us it’s a Monday back to work after a lovely Christmas break. Let’s drop the barriers we might have put up around ourselves and get behind the defences of Shields.