If there’s one quality you can’t deny Sally Shapiro have, then it would undoubtedly have to be consistency. Almost two decades in (complete with an abandoned retirement in the middle) there haven’t been any dramatic shifts in their style or tone: the duo (made up of producer Johan Agebjörn and an anonymous female vocalist who uses the singular pseudonym Sally Shapiro) are still drifting by on their love of Italo disco, heart on the sleeve love, and wispy club energy. Their new album, Ready To Live A Lie, serves up just that. Being another slice of what listeners expect is perhaps its greatest strength.
It’s hard to knock the duo for not veering off the beaten and reliable path. The album hits a lot of the marks you want it to: cushiony soft disco like “Hard to Love” and “Purple Colored Sky” inspire movement in themselves but could fill a dancefloor with the right club remix; light crystalline slow jams like “Happier Somewhere Else”; and pulsating night time drives (“The Other Days”, the mournful but very likeable cover of Pet Shop Boys’ “Rent”). Labeled as their darkest album yet, the tone is perhaps that bit more forlorn than usual. “We live in the era of lies. We deceive ourselves, our partners, and those around us,” Agebjörn explains. Ready To Live A Lie is that lonely walk home in the rain, a mood album of sorts that is built to be your company on melancholic nights to yourself.
When the album teases out a few moments of slight variation, it helps Ready To Live A Lie differentiate itself from previous efforts. There are no drastic alterations, but this far into their career tiny movements might as well be seismic shifts. Between the glass-like keys on “Happier Somewhere Else” a velvety saxophone perfumes the air, while the vocoder voice on “Did You Call Tonight” adds an effervescent texture to the bare and airy dancepop backdrop. Shapiro’s ever-so-slightly jagged melody on “Hospital” quietly veers it away from being a bland excursion with itchy drum fills and Europop piano.
Come the album’s final moments, Ready To Live A Lie settles into perhaps its most blue and yearnful moments. “I’m really glad we’re over / But still in love somehow / I shouldn’t even think that anymore,” Shapiro aches apologetically on “He’s Not You”, pining for her past love while in the arms of another. Fully embracing the downtrodden ache of Shapiro’s lyrics, final track “Rain” strips away the drum tracks and rests on piano and gossamer synths, ushering itself out on the patter of rainfall. Just about anyone else would be accused of gaudy rainy window theatrics, but after 40 minutes of evidence for tears, it’s hard to imagine a more fitting conclusion – especially for Sally Shapiro.
“Maybe loneliness is somehow inescapable and we simply do our best to navigate life,” Shapiro details of the album’s themes. Ready To Live A Lie is a reluctant but delicate embrace of sadness and heartache. It arguably burrows that little deeper into this angle than the duo’s previous releases, but like you would expect from them, it makes no sudden movements or shocking turns. For fans, it’ll be exactly what they want, and for new listeners, it’s another opportunity to get on board without feeling like you’ve missed anything. “I keep falling for the one who doesn’t cherish my heart,” Shapiro sings on “Hard To Love”, capturing the essence of the duo’s music. It’s a familiar story for her and for us. It’s consistency, through and through.
