Decca Records

Release Date: June 21st 2024

Reviewed by: Joshua Andre

Sheppard– Zora (Amazon mp3/iTunes)

Track Listing:

1. Zora
2. Daylight
3. Good Time
4. Got To Be Love
5. Sunshine
6. Edge Of The Earth
7. Love Like That
8. Nothing Without You
9. Running Straight To You
10. Respect
11. Chasing The Sound
12. Dance On The Sun
13. The Gift
14. Love Me Tomorrow
15. Play On The Moon
16. Sumrak (Feal. Zora Pugl)

Not too long ago, I reviewed OneRepublic’s new album Artificial Paradise. It was a brief 40-odd minute examination into the human psyche and how to navigate face to face 3D relationships in the digital and social media age; and despite the brevity of it all, OneRepublic still poses question after question after question. It was a pop summer project, but a deeper look revealed a complex album that quite possibly could be one of my favourite pop albums of the year. Around the same time of the year, Aussie sibling trio Sheppard released their 4^th studio album, titled ZORA. Now, I’m not that privy to this group- I’ve heard a few of their songs like “Coming Home”, “We Belong”, “Geronimo” and “Something’s Missing”, but sadly, their previous album Kaleidoscope Eyes passed by without much of a ‘wow’ moment- I don’t think none of their songs from the 2021 studio album hit the radio. And so, with ZORA, I decided to see what George, Amy and Emma had to offer on this 16 track summer pop collection of goodness. At least, that’s what I thought it was. I thought that after the awesomeness of Artificial Paradise, that a similar sounding album musically would be alright, and hopefully lyrically these siblings may be able to surprise me. Sadly though, ZORA did pass by… and it was without that spark and that wow moment. There’s nothing wrong with these songs. But it’s just there. Not bad, not engaging, rather lazy writing, rather lazy music production. I’m not attacking these musicians as people. But ZORA is underwhelming no matter which way you slice it, and that’s a shame.

The title track, an instrumental soothing, keys driven melody and interlude, starts the album off in an interesting manner, but once you hear “Daylight”, there’s no unhearing it. It’s a pop song at its core, with half-religious imagery about lighting us all up like daylight, but there’s also new age elements and lyrics present here, and it’s really a mess. Truly, “Daylight” can succeed at pop radio, but as much as this song is catchy, the lyrical content just isn’t for me, even if it is a quasi-CCM-esque song if you squint hard enough. “Good Time”, the album’s official lead single, is a groovy bass guitar driven melody, but the lyrics are still stale and uninspiring. For me, I liked the song better when it was called “Good Time” by Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen- Sheppard sing about having fun in the sun but add no value here. Similarly, with “Got To Be Love”, there’s no memorable lyric or musical moment in this nondescript pop number- and while the essence of believing that love will save the day is true, the reality is that that sentiment is so vague anyway, that is doesn’t mean much to the person going through the thick of their problems. The song is nice, but again with the previous melodies, it’s just airy platitudes.

“Sunshine” tries to be creative with it’s ‘new-age-y’ descriptive lyrics and its summery piano pop melodic tones; but the only saving grace is Amy Sheppard’s pristine and soothing vocals. Similarly, “Edge Of the Earth” blows by without a real dent, despite lyrically and thematically being quite earnest and sincere with the persona outlining that this person is so important to them that they’d go to the edge of the earth just to be with them; while “Love Like That soars in the verses with the melody being about someone who wants to offer that significant other a ‘love like that’- yet the track falls back down to earth with the painfully woeful chorus which is repetitive to the max. Thankfully, a bright spot in this sea of mediocrity is “Nothing Without You”, a piano ballad that is a hopeful melody that could double up as a worship song to God if sung by someone like Chris Tomlin or Phil Wickham, as we are met with a track that declares ‘…I could be anything I wanna be, rule this world, take over the galaxy, conquer every castle in my view, but I’m nothing without you, life could go on for infinity, all the golden riches it’s given me, I could bet it all and never lose, but I’m nothing without you…’; while “Running Straight To You” continues with hopeful and inspiring melodies- the piano ballad outlines the persona’s love for one person so much so that they want to run straight to them always in the good times and the bad times.

“Respect” is a nice enough tune about the persona asking their ex to respect them even if they don’t love them anymore, but again, the music here is pretty forgettable and apart from Amy’s beautiful vocals, there’s sadly nothing ‘wow’ about the song. “Chasing the Sound” comes and goes (and the less said about this forgettable track the better!). “Dance On The Sun”, though musically sounding quite unlike anything Sheppard has done, is actually a melody that is worth repeating, as the band delivers “…a beacon of hope for those who have faced adversity and found themselves in the midst of darkness. This song serves as a reminder that even when the world feels lonely and bleak, the sun will always rise again, and with it, comes a renewed sense of euphoria, warmth, and love…”; while “The Gift”, though well-meaning and intentioned that the present moment we’re living in is a gift that we’ve been given and that we should cherish it and spend time in the present moment, is yet another song that is musically uninteresting, and lyrically contains quite a few new-age themes, such as levitation and dancing on the sun. “Love Me Tomorrow” is quite pleasant on the ears, and presents to us a theme of self-doubt and unworthiness and wanting to know whether we are loved and lovable to the people around us, but again is a song that half-slips on by, and sadly doesn’t leave much of an imprint. “Play On The Moon”, like a few others, redeems this project just a bit, as the trio sing their… testimony, if you will, and a song that speaks about the hardships they’ve had and how they’ve overcome every obstacle to get to where they are right now. While ZORA ends with the spoken word piece “Sumrak”, containing words spoken by their grandmother Zora.

The album revolves around the rejuvenating nature of light and that no matter how dark life at times can feel, a new sunrise is just around the corner. Throughout any family ordeal or crisis (which no doubt every family goes through), we constantly look up to our Croatian Baba (grandma), whose name is Zora.

Life has thrown her some monumental curveballs, but the way she’s always kept a smile on her face, shown nothing but love, positivity, and hope for the future in the face of tragedy is something we’ve always admired about her.

This led to us consciously focus on gratitude and finding the positive in our own moments of crisis or loss. Instead of writing sad songs of self-pity and despair, we decided to set out to craft an album that was authentic to our emotion and real-life experiences, but could still be fun, uplifting, anthemic, and most importantly – hopeful.

In a way of honouring our Baba and paying some homage to our Croatian heritage, we decided to look up what “Dawn” was in Croatian. Incredibly, the word for “Dawn” in Croatian is “Zora”; our grandma’s name. It was a moment of serendipity that couldn’t be ignored. The album name had found us.

Our hope is that Baba’s legacy of gratitude and love in defiance of anguish will live on in our music. That Zora will stand as a beacon of light for anybody who might feel like all is lost. A timely reminder that darkness is only temporary, and soon a new sunrise will arrive to paint the sky with colour once again.

Aside from a few songs (“Nothing Without You”, “Running Straight To You”, “Dance On The Sun” and “Play On The Moon”), Sheppard’s ZORA blows on by without much impact or encouragement or inspiration. There are a lot of summer pop songs with hardly any value added; and that’s a shame as these guys are insanely talented. I know, not every song on a po album needs to be dark and moody and introspective (like Andrew Peterson or Ben Rector or U2), and that’s not even what I’m advocating. On the other end of the pendulum, no album can really be of substance when you’re faced with 12-15 songs of Lil Nas X or Camila Cabello (these days!). Sure, you need songs that you can let your hair down to. But a balance is needed on a pop album, and I feel Sheppard haven’t done that. To be fair, perhaps I’ll change my mind in a week or two or three. But as it stands, ZORA is just there. It’s a nice album. but it’s not a long-lasting one, and those are the albums that I’d rather repeat on my digital playlists. Perhaps cherry picking for me for this release, and hopefully the next offering is a bit more well-rounded.

4 songs to listen to: Nothing Without You, Running Straight To You, Dance On The Sun, Play On The Moon

Score: 2.5/5

RIYL: Guy Sebastian, Kylie Minogue, Tones & I, Jessica Mauboy, Calum Scott, Bebe Rexha