The Sheila Divine
“No Favors”
Trash Casual Records
Boston-based alt-rock outfit The Sheila Divine releases their new single, “No Favors,” a track taken from their upcoming sixth long player, The Middle Ages, which exhibits the evolution of the band’s sound from raw pop to a more polished sound that still has an edge.
Frontman Aaron Perrino describes The Middle Ages as “all of my pissed off Gen X angst about aging, the failure of capitalism, death, heartbreak, and what the future holds in the back half of my life, where everything is so grim.”
Collaboration sits at the center of The Sheila Divine. Alongside Will Claflin, Paul Buckley, Andy Rooney, and Steven Lord, Perrino favors collective momentum over individual display. The arrangements come across as interdependent: no single part dominates. The Sheila Divine operates as one unit—less interested in display than in flow.
For Perrino, there’s something magical about working with so many people. “The more people that touch it, the more it manifests into something,” he explains.
Produced by Wally Gagel and mastered by Pete Weiss, “No Favors” is balanced.
“No Favors” opens on swirling, twirling tones, followed by flowing into a driving rhythm topped by interweaving layers of synths and guitars. Perrino’s vocals imbue the lyrics with a mood of intensity juxtaposed against the oscillating glow of the synths. Vaguely reminiscent of The Killers blending alternative, art-rock, and emo, there’s a bigness, a scale, to the harmonics that hums with surging energy and yet doesn’t overwhelm and become too much.
Perrino’s tight, slightly grainy voice gives the song quiet authority. Slightly worn, carefully modulated, it’s a voice that carries emotional weight. The chorus rises and recedes rather than exploding, making the melody that much more compelling.
At once focused, roomy, and precisely produced, “No Favors” finds The Divine Sheila continuing to churn out deliciously appealing music that’s fresh and relevant.
