As soon as you push play on The Bloodsugars new album, I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On, you know you’re listening to something really good. The bass line comes direct from The Turtles’ “Happy Together” and the vocals use the old fashioned reverb, like the kind you’d hear in The Zombies’ “The Way I Feel Inside.” Those are some pretty impressive touchstones to start an album off, and this record doesn’t disappoint. Let me talk about some of the joy you’ll find within.
The second track, “The Pedestrian Boogie,” practically steals the piano line from Toto’s “Africa,” and then adds some syncopated, synthesized hand clapping to the groove. There is no question that this song was heavily influenced by Toto. It even has that ‘80s bass feel, where it simply punctuates the rhythm as opposed to driving it.
“Form/Function” starts with a beat straight out of a new romantic dance classic, and the whole song seems like something that started in England in the early ‘80s and finally reached us here. It’s ready for the dance floor, for sure.
The record is dripping with brilliant production moments. It’s decidedly hi-fi, and every sound from every instrument has been chosen for maximum effect. Harmony vocals appear right when you want them to, guitars of all kinds visit from out of nowhere to drop a little candy into your ears, a slap bass will remind you how cool slap bass sounds, and a little bit of snapping will get your walking pace just right. Even the rousing closing track, “Before the Accident,” finishes itself off with a string quartet coda. This is a terrific sounding record.
The more I listen to this album, the more I think that each musician is trapped inside of a different decade. The singer’s in the ‘60s, the guitarist is in the ‘70s, the bass player is in the ‘80s, the keyboards are pure ‘90s, and the drums and percussion are from the ‘00s. And sometimes they all get in their respective time machines, meet up in their studio, swap notes about the sounds of their decade, and make an absolutely killer track like “I Want It Back” which mixes modern and classic influences into a song that would feel at home on FM radio, in an indie rock club, or on MySpace. The Bloodsugars are for everyone.
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I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On is available from Engine Room Recordings. I bought it off of Amie Street in order to do this review.
First you recommended Elbow, and I loved it.
Then you recommended Muse, and I loved that.
So it looks like I’ll be picking up the Bloodsugars at my earliest possible convenience.