"Goodbye abstract, hello concrete / Goodbye cruel world, cheerio!"
i'm so angry that this album doesn't exist on spotify. Blow it Up, Burn it Down, Kick it 'Til it Bleeds is easily the most obscure on the list so far and i'm very angry that i didn't discover it earlier. Blow it Up is a one-of-a-kind album, one that i couldn't really imagine any band coming close to. y'know what i mean? it's a very unique sounds that reminds me in more ways than one of Bôa, one of my favorite rock bands of all time. there's at least some inspiration there. there has to be!
"Blow it Up" has a very angry title that really conflicts with its material in the best ways possible. it's not a hard rock or heavy metal album; it's poppy, almost happy post-rock, an ambient and kind of otherworldly sound that even vaguely reminds me of shoegaze sometimes. it has a lively and warm sound that contrasts heavily with its lyrics at times; I Mean Wow has pretty clear themes of suicidal ideation and urban decay. Mary Hampton, the band's lead singer, has such a beautifully hypnotic voice that before i knew it i was halfway through the album. the album is a huge treat to just sit down and listen through.
"Relatively Good Times" has this great dichotomy between a more tonally soft and kind of psychedelic opening that immediately shoots into this electronic sound with heavy drums that contrasts so much with the rest of the album before mellowing back down with some haunting vocals. the entire album has this overall feeling of melancholy and just general anger that takes a while to really bubble up and explode into real sound, and as somebody living with a mood disorder i feel kind of seen by this album as weird as that sounds. the whole album has this amazing sound to it: it's like what i wanted to hear from In the Aeroplane Over the Sky. good thing that Blow it Up wasn't such a massive disappointment like that was. sue me!
Blow it Up was an instant buy for me. there's such a unique mix of sound on display here. it's just an incredibly wonderful listening experience that i have to recommend to absolutely everybody. at the very least, give "I Mean Wow" a chance! i've gotta have this on my CD player. what a treat!
