Strap on your Pucci best. We’re rifling through our treasure trove of interviews to fish out a vintage gem–the better to explore the strange vortex in which fashion and musicians meet. Today, we’re giving Shannon McArdle the once-over to see if she’s a must-buy or a throwback.
Ms. McArdle went solo when her band Mendoza Line–and her marriage to lead singer Timothy Bracy–broke up. She emerged from the double devastation with Summer of the Whore, a semi-autobiographical album that manages to mix humor, vengeful bitterness, dour acceptance, regret and masochism with “dignity and authority.” No easy feat, especially when you have the, er, potentially divisive word “whore” in the title. (She’s referring to herself, btw. Not sure if that makes it more or less divisive).
But as Shannon herself explains, the album–and all it implies–“is not as bad as it sounds.” The poignant examination of the soul-shattering uncertainty, insecurity, freedom and, at times, the inadvisable behavior that almost always accompanies major life shifts speaks volumes about her understanding of our complicated heads.
Her straight-forward, subtly sexy, smolderingly intellectual style echoes her angst, guitar and non-annoying navel-gaze-driven music.
Yep, Shannon’s a keeper.
TOPICS: Flashion Backward, Kathleen Willcox