When the Sha La Das released their 2018 debut, Love in the Wind, it was a bit like the discovery of an animal long thought extinct. A doo wop group releasing new music in the 21st century? Sure, Frankie Valli’s still hanging on, and close-harmony crooning can be heard at civic centers, retirement homes, and casinos across the land. But a real band with members under retirement age, performing original songs? That was something else. Fittingly, the band’s origins had some of the serendipity of a fairy tale: Paul Schalda and Tom Brenneck met as members of sadly deceased soul revivalist Charles Bradley’s band The Extraordinaires, Brenneck got to know Paul’s father Bill, yada yada yada. Bill cuts a doo-wop album with Paul and two other Schalda offspring, Willam Jr. and Carmine, which Brenneck produces.
And now, seven years later, the Sha La Das prove that they’re more than a serendipitous one-off. Your Picture has all the hallmarks that made Love in the Wind a winner: Bill’s supple voice, which can slide into a falsetto remarkably smoothly for a guy pushing 80; the warm, overlapping harmonies that can only be produced by people who’ve spent a good chunk of their lives together; and a firm grasp on classic doo-wop rhythms and melodies that makes room for outside influences from the realms of soul, rock and psychedelia.
More from Spin:
- Sleaford Mods Still Have Plenty To Be Angry About
- 5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: Ryan Key of Yellowcard
- Deep Cut Friday: ‘Alamo’ by Tori Amos
Opener “Young Love and Laughter,” with its lumpy bass line, floating keys, and shuffling beat (including shrewd conga accents), does a good job of capturing the album’s souped-up take on classic sounds. Though the rhythms and grooves might be relatively newfangled, Schalda’s wistful melody has the poignant purity of bygone days, while lyrically evoking a less romanticized version of yesteryear. “Friends and love and innocence, they don’t last ever after,” Schalda sings, the resignation that lingers in his voice not unmixed with a trace of hope that, maybe, some of it might.
The inspiration for Your Picture came from a photo Schalda found of his wife and the memories it unleashed. Doo-wop has been used as nostalgic shorthand in commercials and TV for years, but Schalda has more on his mind than sweet memories: The lilting title track may end with an inspirational message: “And though it’s just a distant memory / I know you’ll always be a part of me / When I see your picture,” but it begins with the narrator clearing out “lots of old trash” to “make the time pass.” Love can be a powerful consolation, but it can also get swept aside by the detritus of life. Schalda also doesn’t shy away from relationship difficulties: “Stop Using My Love” nods to the Supremes in its ultimatum to a misbehaving lover, and the Smokey Robinson strut of “Catch You on the Rebound” ponders the lure of romantic roads not taken.
It’s not all longing and regret, though. The piano-enhanced “If You Want You Can Be My Girl” is a pitch-perfect recreation of joyous teenybopper infatuation, while “Do You Remember When” simultaneously captures the wonder of young love and the miracle of it lasting. And “Magic Mary” proves that there’s still room for a good drug euphemism in today’s wised-up world.
Both stubborn survivors and rousing revivalists, the Sha La Das have found a newness in nostalgia and made magic out of disenchantment. Doo-wop may be close to dead, but it can live through memory and persist in dreams.
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.
