SHEARLING - Don’t Look At Me The Way A Dog Might Look At Your Leg

A single track, sixty-two minutes long: that's how Shearling introduced themselves in 2025, with "Motherfucker, I Am Both: 'Amen' And 'Hallelujah'...", one of the most extreme and monolithic "monster" debuts in memory. The music moved forward as a single sonic mass, caught between obsessive repetitions, dissonance and sudden folk incursions, with the power of Swans acting as its glue. Just a year later, the Los Angeles band, born from the ashes of Sprain, radically shifts perspective. If repeating themselves seemed impossible, Alex Kent and co. sidestep any potential comparisons and don't even attempt it.

Con “Don’t Look At Me The Way A Dog Might Look At Your Leg” si passa da that monolithic composition a cinque brani della durata complessiva di appena trentatré minuti. Il noise debordante lascia spazio a un folk inquietante che porta il precedente caos a una parvenza di formato canzone malato e, a modo suo, poetico. Se è vero che l’elemento noise è meno preponderante e i muri di chitarra sono scomparsi, la musica degli Shearling rimane sperimentale e disturbante senza bisogno di alzare il volume al massimo.
“Three Pebbles (Saltlick)” (otto minuti) è il brano che mantiene il legame più evidente con il passato. Chitarre scarne, canto sbilenco, testi perlomeno ambigui, rumore che non esplode mai, ma rimane al servizio di un equilibrio instabile tra un folk apocalittico devastato e sonorità avant. I tre brani successivi (“Believe Me (Dust)”, “Surely You Know By Now”, “Young Man In Idaho”) portano la chitarra acustica alla sua dimensione più minimale possibile, con immagini di uomini distrutti dalla colpa.

The twelve minutes of "Your Reward" represent the record's high point. Acoustic guitar converses with a string melody, creating soundscapes akin to the tragic ones of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, enriched by an inspired vocal that seems to pay homage to Nick Cave in his songs accompanied by Warren Ellis's violin. We're far from the fury of the debut, but this alternative take on the "song format", especially in the longer tracks, retains the ability to build tension and then release it step by step, the way a post-rock band would.
The noise has taken a step back, but Shearling's unease remains intact.

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24/10/2026