Written
by Laura Dodero, posted by blog admin
Black
Bluebirds, coming out of the Minneapolis area, prove they are expert at pouring
old wine into new glasses thanks to their invigorating mix of adult and highly
personal themes with traditional musical structures handled with more than the
usual amount of skill. The ten song Like Blood for Music is never formulaic –
instead, Black Bluebirds prove themselves to be orchestrating textures and mood
in such a way no two songs sound exactly alike while each maintain an
individuality helping to make this an unified experience from the first to the
last. Keyboardist, singer, and songwriter Daniel Fiskum definitely emerges from
this album as being a truly formidable talent, but Black Bluebirds is far more
than some sort of glorified solo project. Instead, guitarist Simon Husbands and
drummer Chad Helmonds bring a great deal to the table. There are other
important contributors outside the three piece, particularly guest vocalist
Jessica Rasche, and their additions to the album make it all the more powerful
of an experience.
If
Like Blood for Music were an academic exercise of some sort, the opener “Love
Kills Slowly” would be the album’s thesis of a sort – it lays out much of the
same thematic path Black Bluebirds follow over the course of the album’s
remaining nine songs. It might prove to be a bit deceptive for some listeners.
They lay out a distinctly hard rock course with this tune and, while echoes of
this approach abound throughout the band’s music, it isn’t a defining aspect of
what they do, but rather part. Daniel Fiskum’s lyrics are ideally suited to a
musical setting and show obvious care, but he has an intelligent flair to each
of the album’s ten lyrics that few writers in this vein can boast.
Later
songs like “Strange Attractor” and “Battlehammer” are, arguably, closest in
musical approach to what we hear with the opener, but there’s never any sense
of the band repeating themselves. Much of Like Blood for Music is devoted to
more cinematically minded pieces like “Life in White”, “My Eyes Were Closed”,
and “House of No More Dreams”. The second and third of those songs, in
particular, are obviously keyed to be the album’s showpieces in this regard and
show how adeptly the band mixes the dissonant hard rock edge in their music
with more near orchestral approaches. The diversity is carefully modulated and
never sounds too far afield of the band’s initial impulse and it’s equally
praiseworthy how the three piece can make very adult themes accessible for even
those who haven’t experienced such things. The hard rock edge is often present
in Black Bluebirds music but, even when it isn’t, there’s the same sort of
intensity brought to bear we readily associate with that sort of sound. Like
Blood for Music is one of the best offerings in this style I’ve heard in quite
some time and opens up the future nicely for this band going forward from here.
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