MIXTAPE: DIRTY

TWIN SHADOW’S GUILTYPLEASURE PLAYLIST

TOTAL ECLIPSE

TWIN SHADOW’S LATEST ALBUM GLOWS WITH EARLY ’90S POP-SOUL VIBES. BY KENNETH PARTRIDGE. PHOTOGRAPHED BY ANDI ELLOWAY

George Lewis Jr. is used to hearing names like Morrissey and Prince—two of the artists he’s been compared to since emerging from Brooklyn in the late ’00s as soulful synth-pop style maven Twin Shadow. Jon Secada? Not so much.

That may change with Eclipse, Twin Shadow’s terrific third album and first since leaving 4AD for Warner Bros. Lewis’s major-label debut smolders with earnest midtempo jams not unlike Secada’s “Just Another Day,” a top-five hit for the Latin-pop superstar back in 1992.

The reference makes Lewis chuckle—not because he disagrees, but because his friend Milan Zrnic, the photographer behind the Eclipse album artwork, is way into Secada. And he’s not the only one. “His songs are amazing,” admits Lewis. Occasionally, Zrnic will call out, “Hey, Jon Secada” to Lewis in jest—especially when Lewis wears an outfit like the one he is in today. On this frigid afternoon in New York City, the combination of no socks, brown leather slip-ons, and slightly baggy jeans might not have been the wisest choice. Fortunately, he’s nestled in the lobby of the SoHo Grand Hotel, and soon he’ll be back in Los Angeles, where the Dominicanborn, Florida-raised singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist moved after releasing his last album, 2012’s Confess.

While Eclipse standouts “To the Top” and “Turn Me Up” have a laid-back, early ’90s flavor, and the piano-powered “Old Love/New Love” catches a vintage house groove, Lewis didn’t consciously deviate from the more guitar-driven newwave sounds of his first two records.

“There’s no direct influence, but in actuality, I’m more influenced by ’90s Madonna and Michael Jackson—and Jon Secada—and anything that was on the Jock Jams collections,” the 31-year-old says. “Those were the songs that were really playing when I was coming up, before I was a teenager. Those things exist inside of me—the Ace of Base inside of all of us.”

It wasn’t until he was 19 that Lewis discovered groups like the Smiths—and with Eclipse, he’s aiming for listeners around that age. What he hopes to give them with these songs of redemption and new beginnings is something more personal than the club music his friends keep urging him to make.

“If I were 17 years old, I would want so bad for there to be a record that I could drive around with or sit in a park with headphones—something to listen to by myself and experience by myself, that doesn’t have to be about community,” says Lewis. “I wanted to make a record that somebody can keep as their own.” “KISSING YOU,” DES’REE

There’s really nothing to be embarrassed about in loving this song. But when you’re 13, listening to the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack, and your sister’s best friend walks in on you dancing to it, you are ruined.

“LOCOMOTIVE BREATH,” JETHRO TULL

My dad loved this band. I did my best to try to relate to him with Led Zeppelin or Hendrix, but unfortunately he is more a flute guy than a guitar guy. But this song had enough guts for us to rock out to in the old Dodge Ram van.

“…BABY ONE MORE TIME,” BRITNEY SPEARS

When this came out, I was dating a girl who was both obsessed with and looked a little like Britney. I would pretend I was above it, but the good Lord knows that my inner 12-year-old girl was enjoying every moment.

“POP,” ’N SYNC

I was a closet ’N Sync fan toward the end. It was a hard thing to get away with. Thank God Justified came out, and let us all out of the closet.

“YOUR HOUSE,” ALANIS MORISSETTE

I grew up with six girls, and this record got mad heat in my house, at the beach, before church, after church. I went back recently and listened to it, and it’s just stunning. I’m currently leaving myself a reminder to do a remix at some point.