While some of their contemporaries are content to come at you sideways, Portland's Shy Girls are straightshooters. "Under Attack," their first single since last year's rerelease of their 2011 debut Sex in the City, wins you over by forcing you to face it head-on. Marrying the quiet-storm simmer of early-1990s R&B with the chest-rattle of modern-day bass music, it's a devastating slow jam that knows just how long to withhold its pleasures. Warm, rubbery bass gives the track its steady pulse, and from there it builds brick-by-brick-- adding slinky guitars first, then additional layers of synths, and finally, a massive chorus with drums that snap so hard you'll grab your chest to make sure it hasn't burst.
Frontman Dan Vidmar's lightly-reverbed vocals possess a clarity and weight that sells his three a.m. desperation; when he launches into his falsetto pre-chorus, it's thrilling. "Your lips are under attack," he states in the gut-punch of a hook-- but it's not a case of physical intimacy being used as a weapon as much as in-the-moment ecstasy spilling out in all directions. "No more clubs, no more parties," Vidmar vows as the glow starts to fade, "No more drugs and no more shame." Romantic encounters are rarely spiritual rebirths, but that doesn't mean they don't offer other equally satisfying benefits.
