Album Review: Skin Town- The Room

At this point, you kind of have to roll your eyes just a little anytime a new artist pops up and their sound is a throwback to the R&B/Top 40 stylings of the 80s and early 90s. Whether it is “deconstructed” or “abstract,” or just plain traditional, when it’s done well, it’s amazing. When it’s done poorly, it’s incredibly derivative.

The name “Skin Town,” sounds like a lot of things—none of them are an R&B duo. Mostly, it sounds like a strip club, or a porno, or an adult video store—it just sounds kind of raunchy.

Grace Hall and Nick Turco are Skin Town—their debut LP, The Room, treads the line between homage and modernization. At times, it sounds like it would fit in on pop radio from 20+ years ago—“Ice Crystal Palace,” and “Abyss,” the two stand out tracks on the record, while both maintaining a modern aesthetic through heavy synths, the vibe they give off is that of Emotions-era Mariah Carey, or late 80s Whitney Houston.

Occasionally, Turco and Hall lose their direction—allowing the songs to become too contemporary sounding—the trap snares on “Ride,” the dance-pop of “Rain.” But it’s easily corrected when they slow things down with a jam like “Midnight Lover.”

The Room is obviously meant to be a fun record—and that’s okay. Lyrically, these are love songs, or at least lust songs; "Wish I could meet you there, I'm in my underwear," Hall declares at one point. When it works, it REALLY works—and all you want to do is groove along with it, similarly to Haim’s Days Are Gone, or the self-titled Dungeonesse LP. When it doesn’t work, it’s not bad or anything, it just becomes less memorable.

Skin Town are relatively new, so I’m not sure how long this kind of idea can be sustained as far as future releases. The Room, while a little uneven at times, is a rather sensual listen, and it serves as an impressive debut from a group that has a decent grasp on the history of contemporary popular music.

The Room is available now digitally in the iTunes store, and should be out physically on November 26th.