Ian Marquis - The Shivers

The single greatest hurdle for musicians is creativity. Sure, it's an obvious trait, but some musicians don't really take it into account. I have heard countless bands who are flooded with talent, but they lack the creative spark to make anything interesting of it. Sure there are exceptions (Nickelback runs to the front of my mind here), but the majority of bands survive on their ability to make what has not been made. That is Ian Marquis' resounding trait.

I met Ian through reddit, quickly revealing itself to me to be the king of the interwebz. Ian makes music for a genre that I don't listen to very much. While there are moments of post-rock and even pop here and there, I keep relating his tunes to the realm of industrial. I would certainly classify his first album, with it's brooding drum pounding and whispering vocals, very industrial music. It's much more difficult to pin his second self-written-played-produced album, The Shivers, under this title, or any title for that matter. "Girl's Got Attitude" has the very dramatic grumbling, but the riffs are much more U2, or even Whitesnake, than Trent Reznor. "Clarified" can be called nothing less than dancing inclined (Think what Daft Punk did on Tron), while "Pressure Plates" is a great little glitch pop jam. Meanwhile, the guitar riffs remain hard hitting throughout, and the overall mix stays spot on as well. The production, what with Ian doing it all himself, was one of the main things that surprised me when listening to his music for the first time.

While the creativity is very nice, Ian does have a few things to work on; mainly his lyrics. He has some great ideas for some lines, don't get me wrong; It's just that he struggles to flesh them out to their full potential at times. "Baby, don't you know /I've gone away/But you're all wrapped /Around these gears /Dreamin' that tomorrow is today" left me hoping for towards the machine aspect, but the reference dies off there. Also, the voice can get a little too dramatic to be sincere in a select few places. Marquis is astutely effective when keeping the tiniest bit of melody in his softly trickling voice, but when it claims a bigger stake in the songs, it can get a little to far out of line. However, this is a trait I have seen many times with those who ease their way into the singing role, and you can hear the improvement in his vocal ability between his first album, The Solomon Project, and his latest release.

The album is a very impressive one for a musician just starting to find his way in the industry, and it proves that there is a lot of potential in Ian's wash-y guitar driven ballads. Check out the album here, and if you like it enough, please buy it. I'm sure Ian would be eternally grateful for helping him keep make this music he is so passionate about.