Blossoms: Gary
(Odd SK Recordings)
All Formats Available
Released September 20th.
Blossoms album release time. Grumpy old men, always men, on the internet complaining about them not being real or something and not having paid their dues. Look at their outfits. They’ve only got one song. Where’s the guitars? Etc etc ad nauseam
Blossoms make indie pop music. They don’t make any apologies for it and nor should they. Three number ones, massive outdoor shows in Stockport and more recently Wythenshawe Park, that comfortably outsold New Order the night before, tell their own story. They make music that makes you smile. Music that you don’t have to take too seriously, although Tom Ogden’s lyrics can be introspective and darker than the music might first suggest. They connect to young and old and are more the modern incarnation of the eighties artists they have on their pre-gig playlists than they are (Greater) Manchester’s heavyweights of the past. This extends even to the YMCA replication of the album’s title on the cover.
Who’d Call Their Album Gary? has been the tagline for the album campaign so far. An eight foot gorilla with a “fibre glass heart” stolen from a Scottish garden centre might be one of the more unusual inspirations for a song and album title but it works. The song itself possesses one of those ridiculously earworm hooks that Blossoms seem to have on tap. A few weeks ago it had 25,000 people singing it a week after release in Wythenshawe. It’s full of clever funny one-liners as it tells the story.
The album, like the very best pop music, doesn’t hang around. Ten songs, thirty one minutes and there’s no filler. Each song here could be a single from the opener Big Star where Tom muses on his shyness approaching industry figures, wistfully recalling classic music imagery and imagining himself in those situation. The Jungle-produced first single What Can I Say After I’m Sorry felt a little light on first release but makes perfect sense in the album context.
I Like Your Look, a collaboration with CMAT, is pure eighties cheesy pop of the type Wham made their own. References to Gucci, Vogue abound as Tom and CMAT share the lead, there’s some of those guitars Blossoms are often accused of shying away from before the whole thing ascends to its joyous, slightly silly but brilliant conclusion.
Nightclub has the disco feel of the title running through it, lush harmonies abound while Tom tells the story of trying to blag his way into a club, name-dropping, regretting the group he’s arrived with before finally finding their way inside.
Perfect Me might just be their best song yet. Brilliantly observed in its self-improvement assessment, it reels off a list of ways of making the subject a better human being – “back yourself but modestly, show your friends empathy, make more time for family, go somewhere you’ve never been” – whilst understanding that none of this is actually as easy as it would seem. The synths lift into the chorus beautifully accentuates the song’s message.
Those harmonies sit beautifully across Mothers, a wistful reflection of teenage friendships (“you always had my back, with a Diet Coke and Mentos pack”) years going to 42s club in Manchester and the late night drunken conversations. The chorus references their mothers’ relationship, old photographs of them going to similar clubs dancing to Rick Astley and The Smiths, the two artists that were the focus of Blossoms’ semi-recent collaboration.
Cinnamon is a love story with a boy and girl who meet in a record shop with references to The Goo Goo Dolls and Squeeze. Clocking in at under three minutes, it’s a whirlwind of a song, full of clever lyrical rhymes and turns of phrase that paint the picture of the romance.
Things get a little more serious on Gary’s final two songs. Slow Down is bathed in more of those gorgeous harmonies, but Tom is in reflective mode mulling over whether the relationship in question is going too fast – “I know we have both been preoccupied, but that’s no excuse, we should prioritise one another.”
The album finishes with Why Do I Give You The Worst Of Me, an exceptionally honest appraisal of inconsiderate behaviour in a relationship, putting yourself above the other, reeling of a list of such situations before coming to the conclusion – “I’ve a funny way of showing that for me you’re enough… I’m sorry, I’m sorry for the way that I’ve been”
Gary is Blossoms’ most accessible cohesive record to date. It’ll delight their long-term fans. It’ll win them a swathe of new ones with the more direct pop approach of the singles. And it’ll continue to infuriate those who see them as some sort of indie traitors. Gary is a fun, joyous half-hour distraction from the state of the world that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It might not change anything, but it’ll make you smile.
Blossoms’ official website can be found here and they are on Facebook and Twitter.
~
Words by David Brown. Find his author’s archive here.
We have a small favour to ask. Subscribe to Louder Than War and help keep the flame of independent music burning. Click the button below to see the extras you get!
