Album Review: Blossoms – Blossoms
Blossoms
Released 5th August 2016
Words: Gary Lambert
Welcome to the official start of Blossoms becoming the biggest rock n roll band in the UK. Note: I’m not suggesting Coldplay, The Rolling Stones or Arctic Monkeys style stadium nights from this – but they are Event Bands now. From this, Blossoms’ eponymous debut album they put themselves hot on the heels of the likes of Catfish and The Bottlemen, The Courteeners and Foals in the race to fill arenas constantly.
Blossoms have got in my opinion a real catalyst to help them though. They have The Tunes. From opening number Charlamagne, the band hits the floor running. If you do not know this song by now you have not appeared in the crowd at any festival, gig, or indie disco in the last nine months. This is a stomping, riff-heavy, call and response behemoth of a song. It is a ballsy move, too, from Blossoms to stick such an obvious big-hitter as the opening track rather than slow burn up to it.
But Blossoms, despite their growing Lad Bible live audience, are far from a succession of standard bangers. Instead the album is nuanced with tracks showing more to their powers than creating singalongs. Take, for example, 80’s soundtrack synth Honey Sweet, this shows off the delicacy of Tom Ogden’s vocal as well as the band’s collective ability to make music that appeals to more than one demographic of music fan. The jangly guitar running through it reminds me of the vastly underrated Wirral band, By The Sea, who whilst friendly to the ears are never likely to be chart friendly.
The earlier numbers such as Blow and Cut Me and I Bleed are also included in the album despite being more from a time when Blossoms wore black turtleneck jumpers on stage so they looked more psychedelia influenced. Yet they do not sound like filler or tracks from another time on this album. The Blossoms sound has evolved quickly so that the keyboards of Myles Kellock do not sound like either an afterthought or the one driving force, but rather there is unity within the music.
For me, of all Blossoms’ releases, Getaway was the most uninspiring, yet now it feels at home and exciting. What was soft and tepid originally to me has changed in the company of its brothers to the perfect Blossoms song. In order to build up their fanbase, Blossoms have been releasing tracks regularly enough that this album is not full of surprises. Instead this album feels like it is the right album for Blossoms right now. It sounds like the band some of us have fallen in love with. It shows why they have become a band to fall in love with.
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