Pillow Talk - This Is All Pretend |

Fans often take offense when their favorite artists evolve and too often fail to see the truth behind the evolution. Take Memphis, TN’s Pillow Talk, whose first full-length slips further into the dreamier, blearier sound they established on 2015’s What We Should Have Said and adds to it more synthetic soundscapes. Produced and engineered by Matt Talbott of Hum fame, This Is All Pretend feels like a band who has reconstructed itself, having found something and lost nothing. Thematically, these songs are about letting go to once was and determining how to continue. Singer Joshua Cannon’s lyrics came in fragments over a two-year period that saw his grandmother’s declining health take a toll on his family. Magnified by private battles of self-abuse and a dissociation from everything and everyone around him, his relationships eroded as he looked for a path back to the innocence of childhood. The idea of letting go influenced the band’s musical evolution as well, and is evident on songs like “Sorry In My Mind,” where auto-tuned vocals adorn each verse, slithering alongside the synth lead that seems the weave through the song’s strutting beat. The auto-tune is clearly for effect (Cannon’s soulful alto needs no correcting) and reappears throughout the record, though somehow add more soul to the record. So much of This Is All Pretend feels like a natural progression for Pillow Talk—in fact, the dizzy throb on “Between the Frames” and opener “Monogamy” feel like they could have appeared on What We Should Have Said or even 2014’s Recreational Feelings. Still, it’s clear the band has shed its skin and embraced an evolution that has helped them express their truth—which won’t take long for fans to see, no matter how offended they seem.