Moody alt-rock
Disregard your preconceptions of the phrase Singer-Songwriter as Max Shires alt-rock tunes will not fit that pigeon hole. "Goodbye Twenty Nine" does far more than act as a vehicle for Max's fine vocal delivery which has a big range and diversity of style and sits somewhere between Jeff Buckley with whom he has been compared, Thom Yorke and Matt Bellamy so, you get the idea, he's not half bad.
The album has a bit of a 90s feel throughout, the Radiohead-esque tone is quite strong on some tracks but this isn't a copycat sound, it is worked into Max's own sound which is often melancholic with interesting riffs and can be very melodic; the overall package has a more timeless feel.
The tracks here all have emotion, depth, and excellent tunes, seeming to draw on influences from bands like Radiohead. He goes for strong, crunchy guitars, sometimes these are drenched in grungy fuzz and on tracks like opener 'Tomorrow My Servant' he really lets rip vocally, breaking at one point into an emotional almost-scream and tracks like 'TV Evangelist' can get pretty heavy, sweeping you away on a wave of intense noise. Then there are the more fiddly riffs, 'Muddy' is a good example of more intricate guitars woven in between strings and a fantastic vocal line; a great song.
For the most part these are introspective tunes, both lyrically and in the way they make the listener feel, often moody and down beat but always with a nice heavy guitar section and packed with great melodies. Tracks to look out for are 'Office Scum' and 'Last Hurrah' which you can listen to on his myspace to get a feel for what he does.