Album Review: Mansionair Shows Love Is A “Shadowboxer”

If you put U2 in a literal synthwave, you would get Mansionair. Their new album. Shadowboxer, is exceptionally good and turns electro-pop into a sleek, slick race down a virtual landscape. The ultimate trophy is love, of course, but no race is safe. 

If love is a car then make no mistake; it is a weapon. Sure, it can make you get around to places you always and needed to go to, but it can make you slip and crash. With this analogy, Shadowboxer feels like you are driving through Tron. It wears its rhythms like neon suits; they hug your body and make it glow. Tracks like, “Easier,” Technicolour,” and “Best Behaviour” feel like pixelated tunnels of sounds. They are coolly surreal as Mansionair sings to the work it takes to maintain love as a relationship.  

News Flash: Relationships are not easy. There will be a point when you think you cannot live without your partner, and, other times, when you sincerely how wonder how you are living with them. Mansionair take this crisis and put it into their verses, but lead singer Jack Froggatt puts it into his voice. He is so sultry with his vocality; simmering and sizzling his voice with the purpose of seduction. “Astronaut,” “Shadows,” and “Sierra” have him singing with a sweet, calm clarity. He feels so serene as he tries to persuade love to remain with him, of which every synth and bassline whirls around his voice like orbs with images of romance. 

Mansionair’s Shadowboxer can have an intriguing meaning. From “Heartbeat” to “Heirloom,” it really is about the consistent fight to keep your love pure, despite the shadows of life. If living is a series of highs and lows then loving has to be, as well. At least, Shadowboxer, which comes out March 1, keeps you dancing through them. For More Information on Mansionair’s Shadowboxer Click Here.