Northtown (EP)

Northtown is the debut EP by American singer-songwriter Shamir Bailey, better known by his stage name, Shamir. The EP has elements of R&B, house and dance music. It was produced by Nick Sylvester, the founder of New York's Godmode label, and released on June 6, 2014. The EP was rated as one of the best releases by a new artist in 2014.

Northtown
EP by Shamir
Released	June 6, 2014
Genre	Disco, Indie
Length	19:58
Label	Godmode
Producer	Nick Sylvester
Shamir chronology
Northtown (2014) Ratchet (2015)

Track listing

All tracks are written by Shamir except for track 5, by Lindi Ortega.

Tracklist

No.	Title	Length
1.	"If It Wasn't True"	3:58
2.	"I Know It's a Good Thing"	3:57
3.	"Sometimes a Man"	3:48
4.	"I'll Never Be Able to Love"	3:49
5.	"Lived and Died Alone"	4:24
Total length:		19:58

Production

The Northtown EP was produced by Nick Sylvester, founder of the Godmode label. Shortly after graduating from high school, Shamir emailed a demo tape to Godmode, hoping to find a label to release the demo tape.[1] Sylvester called the music "kind of like an R&B 'Yeezus'"[2] and contacted Shamir the day after hearing the tape.[1] Sylvester invited Shamir to come to New York City to make some "real music" as opposed to just releasing the demo tape.[1]

Critical reception

Northtown has received generally positive reviews from music critics.

The music blog, NME, has rated Northtown as "one of 2014's most essential new EP's."[2] In a review of the EP for NME, Eve Barlow wrote:

The disco-worshipping, androgynous teen might hail from Las Vegas but on the strength of these five songs (three funky-house stompers, one stupendous ballad and a heart-rending cover of Lindi Ortega) it's fair to say his spiritual homeland is late-'80s Detroit and his god an ill-behaved hybrid of Grace Jones and Frankie Knuckles... If this is the house that Shamir built, I'm moving in.[3]

In July 2014, Radio.com included Northtown in its "New Music To Know: Best of 2014, So Far" profile, noting that "Shamir combines the honest songwriting of Taylor Swift with the theatrics of Lana Del Rey to make something that sounds far wiser than his 19 years."[4]

Foster Kamer of Pigeons & Planes rated Northtown as "2014's most exciting R&B Dance-Pop debut."[1]

In July 2014, Flavorwire named Northtown's opening track one of its "25 Best Songs of 2014 So Far".[5]

References

1. Foster Kamer (May 8, 2014). "Meet Shamir Bailey, the 19-Year-Old Behind 2014's Most Exciting R&B Dance Debut".(interview with Shamir on video)
2. "Shamir Q&A: Meet the man behind one of 2014's most essential new EP's". NME. June 25, 2014.
3. Eve Barlow (July 7, 2014). "Shamir - 'Northtown' EP: 19-year-old Las Vegas resident excels on funky-house and ballad-strewn debut". NME.
4. "New Music To Know: Best of 2014, So Far". Radio.com. July 2, 2014. Archived from the original on July 22, 2014. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
5. Moze Halperin (July 9, 2014). "Staff Picks: Flavorwire's Favorite Cultural Things This Week".