Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
New review from eMusic:
At the risk of conjuring visions of Air Supply and Bread as you click
furiously away from the third full-length by Dead Heart Bloom, there
is something about Strange Waves that evokes the breezy charm and
golden comfort of soft rock. To be clear, New York City quartet Dead
Heart Bloom doesn't have anything to do with the syrupy sounds of
those '70s hitmakers; the band is simply so proficient at retrofitting
wistful, shoegazey moods to British Invasion hooks that the result is
instantly likable, an eerily smooth assimilation of the Beatles and
The Bends that seems too pleasant to be true.
At the center of Dead Heart Bloom is singer/songwriter Boris Skalsky,
a former member of Washington, D.C. psych-pop outfit Phaser who
composes classical string quartets and runs his own label in his spare
time. Skalsky's vocals are nicely equipped with an I Can't Believe
It's Not British accent, which comes in handy with the Anglo-pop
opener "Someday Will Not Come Again" and in various other
proclamations of doomed relationships and missed opportunities. Many
American bands have trafficked these grey, guitar-chiming skies before
— Starflyer 59 and Ambulance LTD come to mind — but few, if any, have
also aired out the vocal harmonies that Skalsky and guitarist Paul
Wood do here. Over an "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" rolling piano, Wood and
Skalsky do their very best Simon & Garfunkel church-mouse harmonies on "Meet Me," while "Fall" wells up with massed vocals on what amounts to a long, blissful coda. The album's real ending, however, rightfully falls to spiritualized closer "Love Will Have Its Day." Skalsky finally stops battling with his mistakes and misfortunes, singing: "Bad things happen to the good/But it will be OK/Love will always have its day." Whether or not love's prevalence represents a victory or defeat for Skalsky is another matter entirely.
At the risk of conjuring visions of Air Supply and Bread as you click
furiously away from the third full-length by Dead Heart Bloom, there
is something about Strange Waves that evokes the breezy charm and
golden comfort of soft rock. To be clear, New York City quartet Dead
Heart Bloom doesn't have anything to do with the syrupy sounds of
those '70s hitmakers; the band is simply so proficient at retrofitting
wistful, shoegazey moods to British Invasion hooks that the result is
instantly likable, an eerily smooth assimilation of the Beatles and
The Bends that seems too pleasant to be true.
At the center of Dead Heart Bloom is singer/songwriter Boris Skalsky,
a former member of Washington, D.C. psych-pop outfit Phaser who
composes classical string quartets and runs his own label in his spare
time. Skalsky's vocals are nicely equipped with an I Can't Believe
It's Not British accent, which comes in handy with the Anglo-pop
opener "Someday Will Not Come Again" and in various other
proclamations of doomed relationships and missed opportunities. Many
American bands have trafficked these grey, guitar-chiming skies before
— Starflyer 59 and Ambulance LTD come to mind — but few, if any, have
also aired out the vocal harmonies that Skalsky and guitarist Paul
Wood do here. Over an "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" rolling piano, Wood and
Skalsky do their very best Simon & Garfunkel church-mouse harmonies on "Meet Me," while "Fall" wells up with massed vocals on what amounts to a long, blissful coda. The album's real ending, however, rightfully falls to spiritualized closer "Love Will Have Its Day." Skalsky finally stops battling with his mistakes and misfortunes, singing: "Bad things happen to the good/But it will be OK/Love will always have its day." Whether or not love's prevalence represents a victory or defeat for Skalsky is another matter entirely.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
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