Blackbud Album Review
This album has plenty to recommend it to fans of Keane, Travis or Coldplay, it is that competent, middle of the road melodic mainstream rock that they all made their names with and it has an early 00's feel to it. This is radio friendly music that is sure to get picked up and given plenty of airplay especially over the summer because it has a fresh, light feel that would make it good late night chill out mood music that wont wake up the neighbours, mind you, if you like your tunes a bit heavier it's probably not for you. Vocalist Joe Taylor has a great voice, smooth and familiar sounding, with loads of style. It's perfect for this kind of music; he makes the most of the songs, imbuing them with as much emotion as he can muster and occasionally he has a touch of Jeff Buckley in his vocal mannerisms.
The band have some nice touches to their songs; catchy little melodic hooks, some quirky folky/country tinges here and there and plenty of anthemic sing along choruses, like Keane but cranked up a notch because they rely on guitars and not keyboards. They aren't ready to headline a stadium yet though because the problem is that although they have their moments, the choruses just aren't quite anthemic or stirring enough to carry the songs onto another level and there isn't enough variation from tune to tune to hold the attention – sometimes it's easy for your attention to wander because after a while the songs start to sound the same and meld together making it all seem a bit bland.
There is nothing wrong with the tunes, it's just that they often don't inspire a great deal of emotional connection in the listener. The vocals are the main thing that hold this album together and give it more depth, Joe has a good range and gives tracks that threaten to trail away into nothing a boost and a bit of interest. Stand out tracks like opener 'Barefoot Dancer' and 'Heartbeat' do get better with repeated listens though, those choruses that build to a crescendo bring you back into the music before you loose interest completely. Probably an album that will require a bit of work, because it's definitely more of a grower than an immediate love affair, but if this kind of thing is for you it will undoubtedly pay you back .