BLOSSOMS
Gary
ODD SK Records
Blossoms were never meant to be on my radar, but parenthood is such that whether I wanted to or not, I’ve heard a LOT of them in recent years, and they’ve grown on me.
I don’t think there’s much risk of their being shortlisted for any awards marking them out as trailblazers or innovators but - there is a charm about them that's hard to resist. The fact that this, their latest album is called Gary is very much a part of that charm especially when the titular track is an obscenely catchy tale of a stolen fibreglass Gorilla.
An earnest charm wins them a lot of favour, few good things have come out of Stockport (save for perhaps the A6) in a long time, so I’m perhaps affording them more leeway than I would another better than average, but not groundbreaking indie band.
The album is actually pretty good, Blossoms seem to wear their influences on their sleeves - in homage rather than lifting directly and that really works in their favour, they take those hooks and refrains and weave them into something new and a little bit exciting. They fall into the same space as Dire Straits for me, this is the perfect music to listen to passively, they keep your momentum whilst you do the more mundane things in life. Need to clean the house, finely dice some vegetables for a biryani or worse, do your monthly accounts - Blossoms are the perfect soundtrack, they’ll lift your mood and give you that much needed hit of dopamine to carry on right to the bitter end.
Stand out tracks? I Like Your Look, a collaboration with the seemingly unstoppable CMAT fell straight out of the eighties and is begging for a well choreographed dance routine, and definitely one to watch out for on their upcoming tour, especially if they trot out the first lady of country pop. Nightclub is almost offensively light, it could have been lifted straight out of one of Mr Scruffs Keepin it Unreal nights, the song is made for dancing with everyone whether they knew they wanted to or not. But the crown has to go to Gary which wakes me from my sleep yawning a la-la-la, somehow Blossoms have written the perfect pop song, I can’t not listen to it on a daily basis, I worry I might have been drawn into some kind of Gorilla seeking cult - only time will tell, but this might very well be if not top of the board one of, my songs of the year. Notable mentions go squarely to the rest of the tracks, whilst it might not be “all killer” there’s no “filler” either.
I’m close to annoyed by how much I’ve enjoyed this album, I feel like I keep riding the coattails of my first born and jumping onto their bandwagons, but honestly until they mind - I might just keep doing it.
