John Shields – Songs Of Defiance

John Shields is an experienced songwriter, composer, keyboardist, audio producer, and studio engineer with current residence in Nashville, Tennessee. His music offers a unique experience which I highly recommend for those who’re into progressive indie music with unexpected twists and turns. These surprises are occasionally decorated with outstanding ideas and tremendous musicianship, which often explore several complementary genres, skillfully combined into polyphonous harmony. His discography spans numerous singles and extended plays, such as Variations From A Painting, Criminals, I Don’t Recognize You (At All)/Problems, Spaces Between Your Words/Orange Slice Sun Ray, and Maybe Next Year. John Shields also released a couple of full-length albums like Pure Garbage and Songs Of Defiance, which I would like to talk about a little bit more today.

Songs Of Defiance represents one of his latest works, besides the Maybe Next Year single. This particular full-length recording carries ten marvelous compositions that are going way beyond the simplistic indie music. Quite the contrary, John showcases his tremendous creativity through delicate songwriting and composing, but also as a professional music producer and audio engineer. These catchy indie-rock numbers explore the vast universe of endless possibilities, and John demonstrates how indie as a genre may sound illustrious and complex. Besides the dominant presence of indie sound, you may stumble upon some elements of psychedelic rock, progressive rock, power pop, and dream pop. There are also some minor involvements of indie pop and indie folk involved in this sophisticated material. However, these elements are entirely soaked in nearly psychedelic aesthetics of the album.

Besides being highly psychedelic, orchestral, and nearly cathartic, Songs Of Defiance contains a strong seventies cinematic vibe. This material would serve as a perfect soundtrack for some profoundly meaningful seventies movie. John Shields invested blood, sweat, heart, and soul in this material. Therefore, Songs Of Defiance appear as a symphonic indie rock piece with a retro hard rock vibe hidden somewhere beneath the layers of thoughtfully planned melodies. Every involved instrument serves its purpose on this recording, and you will solely enjoy this material in its entirety if you’re admiring detailed indie music. It contains layers of echoic, relaxing, soul-healing melodies you’ll fall in love with each time you spin this beautiful album. It will unquestionably leave you speechless. Songs Of Defiance is available at streaming services such as Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and YouTube. Head over to your preferred streaming service, give it a couple of spins and decide for yourself.