Heeeyyyaaaayyyyeeeaaaeeaaahhh!
*belts in Janis and Aretha*
Four years after "Holy Moly!" it's finally time to relapse big time and get hooked on Blues Pills again!
BLUES PILLS - Birthday (CD) (2024)
BMG has replaced Nuclear Blast Records as the dealer, but apart from that "Birthday" pretty much continues in the spirit of the predecessing album.
As always there is a small set of rules: The music always has to be - at least vaguely - based in Blues, because of the damn band name. Every song has to worm its way into your ear like a motherfucker immediately. No matter how good and hard the instrumentals try, Eilin Larsson's vocals are the star of the show.
All eleven tracks (in forty minutes) succeed in all of these three aspects seemingly without any effort.
The secret super power of Blues Pills has always been the songwriting. The band may seldom stray from the basic formula of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridgeorsomething-chorus, but within these parameters they just know exactly from which influence to pull, which itch to scratch to make everything seem familiar, but actually sound fresh.
And even more so than on "Holy Moly!" they have shed the mantle of being a 70's retro act. If we're going to anchor their timelessness in one specific decade, this album rather feels like the work of a much-better-than-you-remember-them 90's group that played on the big festivals right before PJ Harvey.
I could imagine some songs being even better if they had longer instrumental sections and solos. The average song lengths is only three and a half minutes and one or two tracks beyond five or six minutes wouldn't hurt anyone.
But that being said everything that is actually here is totally on fire. Well, maybe there are one or two little details, which took me a couple of listens to accept, and "Piggyback Ride" might be my top "Devil Man" candidate, which could get on my nerves after too much exposure to it.
But come on, those are all minor side issues in the face of an album, where I don't even want to point out my favorite hits, because there are just too many. Blues Pills are on the top of their game and delivered on an obscenely good level.
Cannot wait to experience this new material live among the rest of their high class catalogue!
As always there is a small set of rules: The music always has to be - at least vaguely - based in Blues, because of the damn band name. Every song has to worm its way into your ear like a motherfucker immediately. No matter how good and hard the instrumentals try, Eilin Larsson's vocals are the star of the show.
All eleven tracks (in forty minutes) succeed in all of these three aspects seemingly without any effort.
The secret super power of Blues Pills has always been the songwriting. The band may seldom stray from the basic formula of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridgeorsomething-chorus, but within these parameters they just know exactly from which influence to pull, which itch to scratch to make everything seem familiar, but actually sound fresh.
And even more so than on "Holy Moly!" they have shed the mantle of being a 70's retro act. If we're going to anchor their timelessness in one specific decade, this album rather feels like the work of a much-better-than-you-remember-them 90's group that played on the big festivals right before PJ Harvey.
I could imagine some songs being even better if they had longer instrumental sections and solos. The average song lengths is only three and a half minutes and one or two tracks beyond five or six minutes wouldn't hurt anyone.
But that being said everything that is actually here is totally on fire. Well, maybe there are one or two little details, which took me a couple of listens to accept, and "Piggyback Ride" might be my top "Devil Man" candidate, which could get on my nerves after too much exposure to it.
But come on, those are all minor side issues in the face of an album, where I don't even want to point out my favorite hits, because there are just too many. Blues Pills are on the top of their game and delivered on an obscenely good level.
Cannot wait to experience this new material live among the rest of their high class catalogue!
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