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Those who were hanging around the music scene in Allston around 2004 may be surprised to discover that the George Lewis Jr. behind Twin Shadow is indeed the same George Lewis Jr. who fronted Mad Man Films back in an earlier life. But though he's traded his previous band's Tom Waitsy storytelling for a sleeker, '80s-new-wave-mining synth-pop, he still retains his herky-jerky sense of rhythm. Lewis's guitars and synths pop like firecrackers on "Shooting Holes at the Moon" and "At My Heels," and the drum arrangement helps to set the ominous mood of "Castles in the Snow." Now based in Brooklyn, he knows his way around a hook, and he has an ear for small moments that can elevate a song, like the handclaps in "I Can't Wait" and the guitar noodling underlying "Slow." Terrible Records head Chris Taylor, who produced Forget, deserves credit as well for helping with the album's airy, dreamy æsthetic. Lewis may be covering territory that a lot of other artists tread, but he's earnest and soulful, injecting the romantic lyrics with a smoothness that reminds me of Avalon-era Roxy Music. "When We're Dancing" could serve as the soundtrack to the climactic prom scene in whatever the 2010 equivalent of a John Hughes film is.
