Indie rock band SKORTS crash in from the New York City underground to your home with their intoxicating debut album, ‘Incompletement’ – an electrifying, neon-bathed rush of gravelly guitars, roaring vocals, and raw, unfiltered energy.

Stream: ‘Incompletement’ – SKORTS

SKORTS is the latest thing oozing out of the neon-bathed nightclubs of New York City.

They’re not the kind of band you’re going to find advertising a new album on a billboard in Times Square or licensing their music to a fad fashion brand, although if you were around back in 2024, you could have caught them obliterating the competition at Our Wicked Lady’s Winter Madness battle-of-the-bands.

No, SKORTS is still at that magical place in their career where the music isn’t being strained by deadlines and contracts; it’s all coming from a place of passion. This is evident on the band’s debut album, Incompletement. The record is made up of seven of the tracks that earned the group an invite to record a live session with 90.7 WFUV and two never-before-heard tunes. The album is dripping with the sort of raw energy that demands it be vivisected in its entirety, cut up and analyzed piece by piece until one discovers what exactly it is that makes this LP tick.

Incompletement begins with “Burden,” a spacey, driving song that sounds like it was written for a movie’s soundtrack. “Burden” is full of layered harmonizing vocals pressed through echo and distortion filters, which gives it a vast reverberating sound, kind of like it’s being performed at the bottom of a gorge.

The instrumental takes the backseat here, being mostly power chords and a nonintrusive beat, occasionally broken up by a noodly guitar riff, which does provide more texture for the track. Something about all of this together screams establishing shot to me. Like it should be playing in the background while I’m being introduced to a setting and cast of characters for the first time.

Eyes are made of stone
Eyes are made of stone
And we’re pushing them down below
And we’re pushing them down below

Eyes are made of glass
Eyes are made of glass
And we’re pushing them down below
And we’re pushing them down below

Oh oh, you take what’s mine
And I’ll have another of your burdens
Oh oh, you take what’s mine
And I’ll have another of your burdens

Second up is “Bodies,” a synth-heavy song that pumps the brakes on the tempo. This song is made up of a synth loop paired with a basic beat. On top of this is a much more powerful vocal track, something saccharine and sentimental. It drops most of the effects that “Burden” had on its vocals, opting instead to rely on frontwoman Alli Walls’ natural vocal talent. This is broken up by the coming and going of the chorus, which is a crescendo of pounding drums, growling guitars, and Walls’ haunting singing. In total, what you have is a delightful ballad perfect for slow dancing in the darkness of an abandoned parking lot long after all the bars have shut down for the night.

Next up is “R4DR4M,” which, for the first four days I was working on this review, I thought was called “M4RD4R.” However, it turns out the song name is an acronym for “Run For Days, Run For Miles,” not a weird way of spelling murder. Who would have guessed? This track is like a rolling tide. It begins with SKORTS’ trademark gravelly guitars and one-two drum beats. Right when you think you have this one clocked, in comes a warbling synth and meaty bass line, which breathes new life into the track. These pair with the guitar, making a well-rounded instrumental that explodes in your face come the first chorus. By this point, the song is a hurricane of strings, keys, and skins all set to Walls’ intoxicating vocals. This cycle repeats throughout the song until you come to a lead break where the lyrics become soft and whispery, and the guitar turns into a single pulsating riff. That ends with another eruption of guitars and drums accompanied by Walls’ wailing. The song then suddenly shifts to a picking riff as Alli croons the last verses, the track coming to a gentle end.

Fourth on the record is “Eat Your Heart Out.” This is by far the band’s greatest hit, pulling in ten times the streams that most other tunes on the album do. That’s for good reason, as this song is one of the heaviest I have heard this year. It’s all screaming guitars and clattering tambourines; it’s booming bass lines and vocals that make this song impossible to turn down. From the high-intensity lead-in that showcases each instrument to the climbing breakdown to the very last chorus, this song just doesn’t give you a second to breathe. It’s one of those tunes where you have to wonder if the band knew they were writing a hit at the time or if they didn’t realize just what they had done until the track was already complete.

In the sun, all in one
Caught your tongue
Meal is done

I can’t be the one to feed them
I can’t be the one to keep them
She’s so exotic,
she was made for incompletement

Eat your heart out
Eat, eat your heart out, heart out
Eat your heart out, eat –

After that, we come to “Steal the Night.” This song fools you at first with a somber opening, making you think you may be in for a slow song. Of course, come the first chorus, the grunge-inspired guitar riff that fluttered in the back of the opening comes snarling to the forefront. It begins going at it with a crash, cymbal-heavy drum beat as Walls belts out the verses. This continues until we approach a peak where the guitar becomes heavily compressed just as it’s beginning to weep.

That comes crashing down to a chugging riff that supports Walls’ vocals, which start off slow, much the same as they did at the start of the song, but rapidly swell to a screaming testimonial. What we have here is a power song. Something you save for three-quarters of the way through the set when the audience is full of energy and social lubrication and ready to sing along, despite their misty eyes.

I won’t be your fake prophet
I want more than what you’ve got, kid
Words might suffice for a quick fix
Come here and try, you won’t stop this

Steal the night, take it and run
Oh, steal the night, oh, take it and run

It’s lost underground in an ant pile
Get off my back, I’m in denial
Get lost, sicko kid
Force your way down
Get off of the grid
Blow a kiss, leave town

At this point, we come to a real slow song, “Lace.” This tune has a groovy tip-tapping beat and easy-to-chew-on guitars. The song is framed around the vocals, mellow and sweet like the first nip out of a fresh bottle of moscato. “Lace” sounds like something you may hear at a prom. It’s a romantic ballad that’s easy to dance to. It shows off a side of SKORTS that we don’t see throughout the rest of the album. None of the in-your-face guitars, the stomping rhythm section, or the devastating vocals. This one is just a calm song to sway along to. What you see upfront is exactly what you get. It provides some diversity to the album that adds depth and helps to round out the overall sound.

Coming off of that, we are immediately thrown back into the go-go rock ‘n’ roll with “Dizzy.” The song opens with a count and then goes right into the ripping guitars. It soon draws back as the first verse starts; here we get a snare beat, some more power chords, and spacey vocals not unlike in “Burden.” This doesn’t last, as when the chorus comes, things kick right back up to where they started. This song is slightly more forgettable than others on the album, but not because it is bad; it’s just more of the same. I think it is overshadowed by “Lace,” which stands out so much against the rest of the album that it makes “Dizzy” blend in all the more.

Next is “I Won’t Be The One,” another slower song that has an interesting surf punk thing going on. The guitar in this song retains the gravely compressed sound that it has had throughout the rest of the album, but the strumming and open hangtime it’s allowed to have here is reminiscent of Dick Dale tunes. “I Won’t Be The One” is another ballad, but one that is not so sticky-sweet as “Lace.” Where that song sounds overwhelmingly like prom night, this one is more like falling asleep on the warm sand of a beach. It’s a serene rock number that lulls the listener. Hypnotic like the Everly Brothers but still as rocking as any Link Wray song.

The final song on Incompletement is a bittersweet goodbye called “Anyone.” The majority of this tune is a guitar being plucked as Walls softly sings. The first half of this track is as easy listening as it gets. You can close your eyes and drift along into nothingness as this song eases you towards the end of the album. Right as you’re beginning to let go, it all erupts into a chorus of violins and drums, which go at it with that guitar riff as Walls goes from a hum to a wail, for one last time demonstrating the catastrophic displays SKORTS are capable of when all the parts of a song finally come together. This fades out into nothingness, leaving the listener free-falling from the musical nirvana they had just attained.

As of right now, SKORTS are still sitting to the left of mainstream.

Despite their electrifying live performances and a debut album that offers everything a person could want, they still haven’t quite hit it big. Hey, New York is a competitive town. That being said, Incompletement is an album that will no doubt launch them into the spotlight, given time. It perfectly encapsulates the band; it shows off what they’re all about while also having a few tricks tucked up its sleeve.

With originals like this, it’s no wonder that in the few short years SKORTS have been together, they have managed to go from unknown new act to battle-of-the-bands champions.

The only question is, how much longer will it be before we do find SKORTS up on that billboard?

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 © Jackilyn Cooper

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