Written
by Wendy Owens, posted by blog admin
This
is an album that, despite its often distorted texture and unusual vocals, has
an infectious quality. Like Blood for Music from the Minneapolis power trio
Black Bluebirds is a condensed, yet often epic and expansive, ten song
collection packing punch on even the softest numbers. Daniel Fiskum’s vocals
dominant the recording, but he’s often accompanied by second vocalist Jessica
Rasche to spectacular effect. There’s some uptempo tracks on Like Blood for
Music, but many of the songs on the album invoke a deliberate and cinematic air
that never strains to make an impact on listeners. Guitarist Simon Husbands and
drummer Chad Helmonds form the other two corners of this power trio, but you
can’t readily label the band as some derivative outfit hanging onto clichés often
going along with that configuration. Instead, Black Bluebirds makes its own
path while still relying on great fundamentals.
“Love
Kills Slowly” relies a lot on Simon Husbands’ memorable lead guitar to make its
most colorful marks and the combination of Fiskum and Rasche’s singing reach a
peak of sorts with the very first number. Her voice isn’t used in quite the
same way on the album’s second number “Strange Attractor”, but she has an
effective presence nonetheless. The comparatively less cluttered arrangement has
a sinewy power we don’t hearing in the first song, but nonetheless leaves it
mark on listeners. “Life in White” shouldn’t pass people by as its one of the
album’s more potentially underrated numbers, but Like Blood for Music takes a successful
turn invoking acoustic sounds on an album where we wouldn’t necessarily expect
that at this point.
“Battlehammer”
is another of Like Blood for Music’s rockier numbers and unreels in such
pyrotechnic fashion primarily thanks to Simon Husbands’ guitar pyrotechnics. He’s
never a flashy player, however, and each of those moments across the span of
Like Blood for Music makes great sense. One of the album’s undisputed high
points comes with the song :”House of No More Dreams”. Despite the possibly
overwrought implications behind the title, the song never descends into bathos
and instead Fiskum’s lyrics give us a glimpse of some underrated poetic chops.
The vocal for “Hole in the Day” gives a new spin to the album’s sound so far
without ever venturing too far afield of Black Bluebirds’ musical DNA. “Don’t
Fall In Love” continues striking the same fatalistic note that’s characterized
much of the release from the start and definitely has added emotional firepower
thanks to the contributions of second singer Jessica Rasche. The album’s
genuine climax comes with the track “My Eyes Were Closed”, but it’s never self
conscious and, instead, realizes the band’s cinematic ambitions in a way that solidifies
their claim to present excellence while pointing a way towards the future.
Black Bluebirds’ Like Blood for Music is definitely entertaining from the
first, but gains even more from the added touch of personal statement fueling
each of its ten songs.
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