self-released – June 5, 2020
Bitter yet sugary sweet musings that reveal a kid with a troubled heart
At first glance Shane Hurst, guitarist/vocalist under the project name Adjust the Sails looks like Jack Black‘s introverted cousin. Turns out he can write songs at least as good as Black as well.
After some EP’s and single songs (and a stint as a duo?) Adjust the Sails is releasing his new album The Worst of Adjust the Sails in the midst of the current coronavirus pandemic. Opener “Sanity” is a testament to the demons in his life that Hurst is battling with introverted lyrics and melodies. Following that is the brilliantly titled “Look Ma! I’m Edgy (I hate my friends)” and “Meet Kyle”, bitter yet sugary sweet musings that reveal a kid with a troubled heart. Very noticeable are Hurst’s feeling for emo-pop combined with the nerdy/clever lyrics he presents to us.
Half way through the album there’s an intermission where Hurst has a few fans’ voice mails about his music playing over a minute and a half musical tapestry. From these statements you can gleam that Hurst’s music speaks to the emotional world of his fans as much as it must do to his own. It also gives us pause to reflect on what stands out so far: emotional songs combined with a sound that feels very compressed in the technical sense. The drums, guitars and everything else feel like they could have had a more nuanced engineering treatment which would have made for some more dynamic quality to the overall feel of the record. This is more personal taste though than technical fault.
Nevertheless, it is very clear that Hurst has a great deal of talent for writing heartfelt and also self deprecating lyrics wrapped in melodic songs (“A Lifetime of Bad Habits”, “Goodbye”) that give insight into his emotional turmoils. This probably is the main point of The Worst of Adjust the Sails. A journey through a musical dairy of sorts from a young adult whose roots seem steeped in melodic acoustic emo-pop angst combining elements from Nerf Herder, Weezer and The Ataris.
