Written
by Brad Johnson, posted by blog admin
Few
indie rock albums start off as well as Black Bluebirds’ Like Blood for Music
does with “Love Kills Slowly”. It also works ideally as an opener as the song,
essentially, lays out the band’s musical identity without ever seeming like
they are pushing too hard for an audience reaction. The natural slant to their
performances on this ten song studio effort, especially in regards to song
structure, help make it one of the most satisfying guitar-heavy releases in
recent memory. “Strange Attractor” hits hard without ever coming off as heavy
handed and much of that is due to the effortless swagger Chad Helmonds brings
to his drumming. Daniel Fiskum’s vocals take the lead here, but Jessica Rasche’s
vocals offer some unobtrusive support while stukk enriching the final result.
The
vivid qualities of “Life in White” are the first indisputable peak on Like
Blood for Music and Fiskum’s writing takes a decidedly poetic turn. The
acoustic flourishes built into this song give it an added shot of urgency that
it might otherwise lack despite its overall excellence and Fuskum’s singing
imparts the right amount of seriousness to the performance. “Battlehammer” and “Soul
of Wood” are the album’s two strongest rock efforts and a big reason why is
Chad Helmonds’ propulsive drumming that presses on the songs with a lot of
verve and attitude. The lyrics for the latter tune are particularly effective
and biting.
One
of the album’s more dramatic moments comes with the spectacular “House of No
More Dreams” and the weaving of Fiskum’s synthesizer work and Simon Husbands’
electric guitar is often rather stunning. They deliver a distinctly theatrical
experience on songs like this without ever sounding overwrought. The strong
pulse guiding the song “Don’t Fall in Love” gives Fiskum and Rasche alike a
chance to flex their vocal chops in slightly surprising ways. Another powerful
piece of quasi-musical theater comes with the penultimate track “My Eyes Were
Clothes” and it’s arguably the album’s finest expression of using music to
create a narrative of sorts for your ears to follow. It’s one of the album’s
finest lyrics as well and it’s notable how Fiskum maintains the same laser
focus in his writing that we hear from the band’s musical imagination. The
songwriting suggests things for listeners rather than spelling everything out
for them and the choice deepens the listening experience for devoted music
fans.
Black
Bluebirds’ journey out of a classic music hub like Minneapolis is considerably
aided by how individual they are. They still use a familiar idiom, however, and
that helps get their intensely personal songwriting over with a potentially
wide audience. Like Blood for Music is a relatively short effort at only ten
songs, but the discipline and focus that goes into making these songs potent is
very memorable.
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