Written
by Drew East, posted by blog admin
Black
Bluebirds opens Like Blood for Music with the track “Love Kills Slowly” and it
sets an early tone that the following nine songs underline without ever
repeating itself. The unique confluence of keyboard color and guitar on this
song and album as a whole throws a vivid veneer over essentially straight
forward rock song structures and gives Like Blood for Music a fresh sparkle we
don’t hear from many young bands today. Despite the relative youth of the outfit,
keyboardist and vocalist Daniel Fiskum, guitarist and vocalist Simon Husbands,
and drummer Chad Helmonds play with enormous confidence from the outset and it
never lets up over the course of Like Blood for Music. “Strange Attractor”
shifts things up a little, but still keeps up a straight rock approach, albeit
stylized, that deserves to snare a significant audience.
“Life in
White” is the album’s most memorable shot at that point for evoking what they
refer to in their press materials as a distinctly cinematic vision for music
that will impress all but the most cynical. It’s the best example yet too of Daniel
Fiskum’s unique writing talents; his themes aren’t particularly cheerful, but
anyone looking for some rose-colored vision of human nature is advised to
pursue their listening pleasures elsewhere. Despite the sometimes thorny
emotional tone of the material, “House of No More Dreams” gives, I think, an
ideal example of how the band surrounds those messages with musical landscapes
that, nonetheless, appeal to the imagination. The song is an intelligently orchestrated
rock track organized musically around Helmonds’ drumming with Husbands’ guitar
and Fiskum’s keyboards flashing over the surface.
“Hole in
the Day” is a sharp contrast to the earlier tunes, probably closest to the
earlier “Life in White”, and the change in singers gives Like Blood for Music a
very different flavor than we’ve heard with many of the earlier songs. It
serves, as well, as a perfect track for showing off how completely the band’s
songwriting understand the fundamentals necessary to making a great song. “Soul
of Wood” is one of the most incendiary blasts of rock the band serves up on
Like Blood for Music and drummer Helmonds makes a mighty impact with his
thunderous, yet fluid, performance. Fiskum and Jessica Rasche are particularly
effective singing together on the song “Don’t Fall in Love” and the patient
tempo has undeniable urgency.
For me, “My
Eyes Were Closed” builds on the earlier “House of No More Dreams” with an even
more gripping arrangement. Simon Husbands’ guitar is a centerpiece of the song,
but the vocals are equally effective at conveying a near epic quality for this
track. “Legendary” feels like a coda of sorts for what has come before, but
that’s not to run the song down – instead, it’s one more indication of the
great construction defining Like Blood for Music. Minneapolis’ Black Bluebirds’
album is a powerful reminder of what the style is capable of in our modern era.
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