Mellow Blue October: The Answers Launched The Band! (My April Artist Of The Month!)

The Good: Good lyrics, Decent voice
The Bad: Short, Fairly indistinct melodies
The Basics: My April musical Artist Of The Month is Blue October, so I go back to their beginning and find The Answers to be an appropriately promising start!


April is here and now that I have gotten more into the rhythm of figuring out how many albums I can realistically get to in a month these days, I figured it was time to find an artist who had a pretty limited selection (or who I had some experience with already!). For that, I decided to turn to Blue October and I am fairly confident that as my April Artist Of The Month, I will manage to get to the remaining albums by the band that I have not yet reviewed.

The truth is, my wife is a big Blue October fan and she has helped me get an appreciation for the group. To start out my proper study of the group, I went back to their beginning. Their debut album was The Answers and it is an interesting combination of the worthwhile lyrics of Justin Furstenfeld and his wonderful voice . . . without much in the way of creative musical backing. The Answers is notable in that none of the songs has a catchy or memorable enough tune to make one hum it after they are done listening to the album. In other words, while the band had a promising start, it is fairly obvious why The Answers was not their breakout album.

With thirteen songs clocking out at 57:07, The Answers is very much the creative vision of Justin Furstenfeld, who is the core of Blue October. Justin Furstenfeld wrote all of the songs and provides all of the lead vocals. He also plays guitars, piano and drums on the tracks, with the rest of the band picking up the instrumental slack that he has for any of the songs. Justin Furstenfeld co-produced the album as well, so this album was very much under his creative control.

Musically, The Answers is not a traditional rock and roll album and it has a different sound from other Blue October albums. The presence of the violin, mandolin, and more pianos gives the band a slower, smokier sound. There are no edgy guitars on this album - save some aggressive strumming on "Mr. Blue's Menu" - and the quieter, more overtly moody sound to the album is very emo. It also makes for a more depressed, less angry, sound than other Blue October albums.

Vocally, Justin Furstenfeld has his distinctive, smooth mid-range vocals for all of the songs on the album. On The Answers, Furstenfeld sings clearly and directly, making sure all of his lyrics may be heard. He does not emote very much; he does not strain his range and outside the primal (not quite-)screams on "Mr. Blue's Menu" he does not even hold any of the notes particularly long on this album. Instead, he is very much a musical storyteller on The Answers, making sure his lines are translated well to the musical medium.

Fortunately, Justin Furstenfeld has something to say on The Answers. The album is lyrically moody, but Furstenfeld makes sure his vocals carry even cramped lines like "There's a part of me seeking and desperately needing to open up. / That's strange 'cause I'm an open book, a confused boy. / I'm an automatic steeple for depressed and lonely people. / My heart while in its cage, / give and not receive a thing, / But the only funny thing is that I don't know how to give myself advice" ("The Answer"). He even makes some of the tricky poetics sound like they fit!

Most of the songs are depressing or about depression. Even so, Furstenfeld does no translate much of it into anger. In fact, only "Breakfast After Ten" contains the genuine rage that Furstenfeld would later be known for. When he sings "You got to make her know how it feels to miss you / Let her know you're swapping spit / You're not the one with all the problems / She's the one that's full of shit" ("Breakfast After Ten"), he manages to convey the anger without letting his worldsplitting rage out. That makes the tune far more listenable than some of his more aggressive, later, works.

And the album is not entirely angry or depressing. "For My Brother" has elements of hope to it. Poetically embodying hope - "And he tells me to sing, and I sing, /And I sing for my brother who keeps me sane / And tells me everything will be okay" ("For My Brother") - Furstenfeld makes sure The Answers does not stay mired in the darkest elements.

That makes for a listenable, but not extraordinary debut. With The Answers, Blue October illustrates how they had the fundamentals from the beginning; they just needed the experience and maturity to grow into a cohesive and balanced band.

The best song is "For My Brother" or "Blue Sunshine." The weak link is the more mundane "Italian Radio."

For other, former, Artist Of The Month selections, please check out my reviews of:
Endless Forms Most Beautiful - Nightwish
Opiate - Tool
Tunnel Of Love - Bruce Springsteen

6/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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More For The Fans . . . Foiled For The Last Time Celebrates Blue October’s (Commercial) Peak!

The Good: Good lyrics, Good vocals, Decent instrumental accompaniment, Good duration
The Bad: Repetitive for those not agog over Blue October.
The Basics: The two-disc Foiled For The Last Time is Blue October’s breakout album alongside a live version of the album.


Over the years, my wife has become quite the fan of the band Blue October. That means that I both listen to quite a bit of Blue October and that some of the gifts she cherishes from me are albums she came to the relationship with that I later upgraded with deluxe versions. Like many Blue October fans, my wife was drawn to the band by the strength of their breakout album Foiled (reviewed here!). Foiled is a good album (not Blue October’s best!) and the band was producing legitimate, emotional, interesting rock and roll at a time when pop-rock was pretty much dead (sublimated on Top 40 stations to hip-hop and dance music). So, when I found Foiled For The Last Time, it was a pretty obvious gift for me to give to my wife.

Foiled For The Last Time is a two-disc set that is good, but is a tougher sell for casual fans/listeners, especially those who already have Foiled. Foiled For The Last Time is Foiled (Disc 1) and “Teach Your Baby Well Live” (Disc 2). Because I’ve already reviewed Foiled, this review will focus exclusively on Disc 2 of Foiled For The Last Time. Foiled For The Last Time is essentially a live version of Foiled without “Congratulations” or “Calling You,” but with “For My Mother” and “Angel.” The live versions are interesting and “Angel” is good, but it’s a tough sell to say that Foiled For The Last Time is worth it to those who are not already fans of Blue October or who are thinking of an upgrade to Foiled. For sure, I would recommend Foiled For The Last Time as a “buy first” over Foiled, but if you’ve already shelled out for the one version, it’s hard to justify spending again for the upgrade.

With fourteen tracks, clocking out at more than sixty-five minutes of music, Foiled For The Last Time is very much the work of Blue October. The album is entirely written (with three tracks co-written) by the band’s lead singer, Justin Furstenfeld. The quintet plays their own instruments, including Justin, who plays guitar and harmonica on various tracks. Foiled For The Last Time was not produced by Blue October, but considering they were releasing the two-disc version for their fans, it seems unlikely they would have allowed the live versions of their songs to be released if they were not pleased with the way they sounded.

Vocally, Foiled For The Last Time is dominated by the vocals of Justin Furstenfeld. Furstenfeld has a smooth voice, for the most part; he only gets raspy when he presents lines filled with anger. The rest of the time, he sings in the higher tenor range and all of his lyrics are completely comprehensible on Foiled For The Last Time. Only on two or three songs does Furstenfeld get overwhelming assistance on his songs from the audience (predictably, “Hate Me” is one of them). Fortunately, this is far less than most “live” albums and as a result, the live conceits are hardly as annoying as they could be. Unfortunately, this particular live album helps to reveal just how little production goes into the vocals or instrumentals of Justin Furstenfeld or Blue October. Furstenfeld sounds virtually identical on both albums, so there are no radical vocal reinterpretations of the Blue October songs on Foiled For The Last Time.

Neither are there dramatic musical alterations on Foiled For The Last Time. Blue October is essentially a guitar, bass, percussion band and they sound quite similar “live” as they do on the produced album. In fact, only the live version of “Drilled A Wire Through My Cheek” sounds significantly more electric “live” than the rest of the set and it still does not sound quite as produced as the original version. As a result, Foiled For The Last Time is largely a collection of two mildly-different versions of some wonderful songs with a couple of minor differences (like crowd noises and an occasional bit where the production was kicked up on the album, usually almost imperceptibly).

What remains largely constant on Foiled For The Last Time is the quality of the lyrics. To be fair to the alternate presentation, it wasn’t until I listened to the acoustic version that I truly heard the lines to “Let It Go.” Furstenfeld plaintively sings “Follow me home / Through the, the maze and on / I'll show you the road /That I led you the wrong way on / Why did I go that way? / Why do I steal? / How could I let her go? / Why do I feel?” (“Let It Go”) and it’s shocking how easy it is to overlook the song on the first album given how powerful of a statement he is making.

The song unique to Foiled For The Last Time is “Angel.” “Angel” is about loneliness and being abandoned/unrecognized. With lines like “How do you tell your Father, / That you want him to notice you? / Why does this seem like such a bother? / When mom says you'd be better off dead / But I want to see you / I still want to see you / Oh would you call me?” (“Angel”), Blue October at least gives consistency in the quality of its exclusive track on the dual-disc album. “Angel” is one of the few angsty songs Furstenfeld wrote about his childhood, as opposed to his role as spouse or parent.

For those otherwise unfamiliar with Blue October, the band is largely known for its angst. Justin Furstenfeld frequently sings about the dissolution of his marriage, depression and anger. The emotional complexity of Furstenfeld’s songs is embodied by “18th Floor Balcony.” On that musical storysong, Furstenfeld passionately writes, “And I'll try to sleep / To keep you in my dreams / 'til I can bring you home with me / I'll try to sleep / And when I do I'll keep you in my... dreams / I knew it from the start / So my arms are open wide / Your head is on my stomach / And we're trying so hard not to fall asleep” (“18th Floor Balcony”). The poetics translate well to music and they create a powerful mood on Foiled For The Last Time.

Ultimately, Foiled For The Last Time is worth the money and is the essential way to get the songs from Foiled, even if fans might begrudge spending twice on half the material. The best song on disc 2 is “Let It Go,” the weak track is “For My Mother.”

For other Blue October albums, please visit my reviews of:
Approaching Normal
Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October
Sway

8.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Not Any Man In America: How Blue October Almost Lost Us . . .

The Good: Emotional intensity, Duration
The Bad: Thematically repetitive/specific, Nothing extraordinary on the music or vocal fronts
The Basics: With Any Man In America, Blue October beats to death the angst and anger surrounding Justin Furstenfeld’s divorce and custody battle in a musically uncompelling way.


My wife is a big fan of the band Blue October and, as a result, I have gotten into the band’s works a bit myself. That my wife actually declared the band her favorite at one point made it easy to buy her gifts for a few holidays and menoversaries. At least, that’s what I thought until I started flooding her with Blue October albums. One of the absolute misses that has collected dust on our shelves for years is Any Man In America. I recall at the time being thrilled that I was able to get Any Man In America for my wife on the day it was released and she got to hear it before all of her (non-pirate) friends. Since then, it has pretty much sat on the shelf with her going back to it about once a year to see if it has grown on her. It has not. So, I decided to give it a listen and see what I thought of it. After eight spinnings of the disc, I can see why.

Any Man In America is not as bad as it is specific and that makes it disappointing. Like the way Lilliane: Resurrection Of The Daughter (reviewed here!) captured the realism of therapy too closely to be either literature or entertainment (it reads more like a transcript of a therapy session in all the gruesomeness that entails), Any Man In America has a limited audience because of how focused it is on tackling a very specific area of human trauma and interaction, in this case divorce and a custody battle. While this might be the absolute bible album for those who have fought for custody against a promiscuous, junkie, liar of an ex-wife while getting screwed over by the courts, because it is essentially a concept album dealing with that alone, it utterly flops with the rest of us. While I can relate to the angst of divorce and appreciate a good break-up album, Any Man In America is not that; it’s lead singer and writer Justin Furstenfeld’s angry rants about his ex-wife fighting him for custody. More than universal, it is offputting and unfortunately boring.

With thirteen tracks clocking out at an hour and two minutes, Any Man In America is verymuch the work of the band Blue October. All of the songs were written by lead singer Justin Furstenfeld. Furstenfeld provides the lead vocals on all of the tracks, though there are guest vocalists on “Any Man In America” and “The Follow Through.” The instrumental accompaniment comes from the band Blue October, including Justin Furstenfeld on guitars. The album was produced by Tim Palmer, who also played additional guitars on Any Man In America, so it seems like the band liked his work and this is very much their vision at the time.

Unfortunately, the album is pretty much over after the second track, “The Feel Again (Stay).” “The Feel Again (Stay)” is poetic, universal and compelling. It effectively sells the album, but like so many bands that try to sell a single, the track is not indicative of the sound and feel of the rest of the album. Any Man In America becomes a litany of complaints – including samples of the subjects involved – about Justin Furstenfeld’s ex-wife and the way she pursued custody of their daughter. Vocally, Justin Furstenfeld gives listeners nothing that he has not on any of the other, previous, Blue October albums. He growls, sings melodically occasionally and talks his way through tracks alternatively. But there is no test to his comfortable range, register or duration of notes. If you’ve heard any other Blue October album, Justin Furstenfeld’s vocals are instantly recognizable (though on “The Money Tree” there are moments he actually sounds like the lead singer of The Bloodhound Gang).

Instrumentally, Any Man In America is the standard rock and roll sound Blue October is known for. Outside the rap added to the end of the track “Any Man In America,” the sound of the album is exactly what one would think of Blue October producing . . . save none of the songs outside “The Feel Again (Stay)” have a truly memorable tune.

Lyrically, Any Man In America peaks early with “The Feel Again (Stay).” The song can be interpreted as a wrenching poem about loss in general and Furstenfeld has decent imagery on it. When he sings “I see the world keep moving as I stumble / They seem to move much faster than me / And while I sit in my four cornered room, dividing hearts for our little girl / While I can't be anything but who I am / And I wish you'd stay / Well that was the beginning of the two of us, the start of our show / Stay stay stay / No I would never have let go“ (“The Feel Again (Stay)”), it is easy to empathize with Furstenfeld.

Unfortunately, the rest of the album is angry and autobiographical the rest of the time. Furstenfeld loses points for his imagination when he makes lists against his ex-wife like “You won't be a part of what we need to be / Not for me, for the future of us three / For our daughter college, family, sudden-health emergencies / You think it's easy pickin' money off my Money Tree? / With two houses, both cars, / I paid off your fucking credit card debt, / Did you already forget? Huh? “(“The Money Tree”). Sadly, the album has a repetitive quality to it as it reiterates many of the same concepts in the subsequent song “For The Love” and then other songs.

It’s clear that Justin Furstenfeld is passionate about what he is singing about and that he even cares about some of the larger political issues surrounding his personal struggle. Outside the personal venting, there is some merit to his observations, “So I kept my business quiet / Just like my lawyer said. / And I tried to focus all / My anger in my work instead. / I was succeeding at self reliant / But inside my soul is dead. / I had to be the sole provider / But not allowed to be the dad. / Literally they took her from me. / Legally they did! They did! . . . Fuck the judge. Fuck that county / Fuck your family too.“ (“Any Man In America”). Even there, though, Furstenfeld falls down and he takes Blue October with him. The album is not about ANY man in America, it’s an album for all the non-deadbeat divorced dads. “Some Men In America” or “Some Men In This Situation” probably would not have sold as well as “Any Man In America,” but those titles are much more accurate as to the content of the album.

In the end, Any Man In America is a lackluster rock and roll album that is buoyed by one decent single and sunk by the remaining dozen. The best song is “The Feel Again (Stay)” and the low point is the sample track “Everything I Am (Limbo).”

For other Blue October albums, please visit my reviews of:
Foiled
Approaching Normal
Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October
Sway

3/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Added, Pointless, Profanity, Why Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October Fails To Land!

The Good: Lyrics, Most of the vocals, Decent instrumental accompaniment/sound
The Bad: “Live” conceits, Short, Most of the ad libs, Nothing unique/exceptional reinterpretations.
The Basics: Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October illustrates well how many of Blue October’s most recognizable songs sound virtually the same live vs. their studio versions.


One would never know from how few reviews of Blue October albums I have written and posted how popular the band is around my house. To be honest, it is my wife’s love of the band that leads to their music being on around the house more often than not, but as I finish reposting the reviews I wrote from the site I used to be quite popular and prominent on, I am rediscovering the joys of music reviews and because I have such easy access to Blue October albums, odds are I’ll be reviewing more of them in the upcoming weeks. Today, though, my attention has been on Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October.

Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October is one of those dust-covered c.d.s on the shelf that I bought for my wife when she fell in love with the band Blue October and that she listens to, at best, once a year. Given how much she loves Blue October and would have liked to see them live around the time Approaching Normal was released, I thought Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October would have been a slam-dunk album for her. But when I picked the album up and started listening to it on heavy rotation, I learned quickly what she already knew: the album is nothing really new and what is new is hardly extraordinary.

With eleven tracks, clocking out at 54:04, Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October is very much the work of Justin Furstenfeld and the band Blue October. The album culls performances from a few Austin, Dallas, and Houston, Texas shows and features songs released on their various albums. There are no unique tracks to this album, save “Colorado 5591,” and it is very much an album for the fans. In fact, those who only know Blue October from their enduring radio hit “Hate Me” will be disappointed; that track is not performed live on the album. However, given the way the audience reacts to the announcement that the band was about to perform “Into The Ocean,” it is clear the album is intended to give fans who were not only showing up for the popular hit something new. Blue October’s members play all of the instruments and provide all of the vocals on Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October. Jeremy and Justin Furstenfeld produced Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October, so it is pretty much undeniable that this is the intended work of Blue October.

What the work proves is that live or in the studio, Blue October is at a place where they are able to release the music they want to release. There is remarkably little distinction in most of the tracks on Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October between the acoustic versions of their songs and the studio-produced versions of the same songs. In fact, the haunting violin on “The End” sounds so close to the produced version of the song that closes a prior album that one almost has to doubt that it actually met the qualification of being “acoustic.”

This leads me to my usual rant about “live” albums. So many artists seem convinced that in order to release a live album, they have to include as much noise from the audience as possible to prove to listeners that the album was recorded live. Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October features enough vocal differentiation – right off the bat on the first track, “Ugly Side,” in fact – to convince listeners that the work was recorded at a live venue (or live venues) so the crowd noises are actually more distracting and annoying than in some way “authentic.” Between the song introductions and an inordinate number of times that Furstenfeld inserts some variation of the word “fuck” into the songs (in places they were not originally), Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October is clearly a series of new recordings. Unfortunately, the addition of expletives does not make the already angsty and tormented Furstenfeld’s lyrics resonate any more than they already did.

Listening to Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October, one is immediately struck by how Justin Furstenfeld might not actually be the most original-sounding vocalist. My wife long-claimed that Furstenfeld had one of the unique male voices in music today. But, stripped of production elements, especially on songs like “The Answers,” Furstenfeld’s vocals sound familiar and derivative of others. On “The Answers,” he growls through the song like Eddie Vedder, on “Into The Ocean” and (especially) “X Amount Of Words” he sounds virtually identical to Michael Stipe of R.E.M., and the harmonizing vocals on “Amazing” make the vocals sound suspiciously like a lost David Bowie track! The vocals are not bad and Furstenfeld sings clearly, which is nice because it allows the listener to actually hear his lyrics.

Instrumentally, Blue October is presented on Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October as a very straightforward guitar/bass/drums band. The percussion is well-presented for the acoustic versions and the occasional violin helps make the instrumental accompaniment sound a little more distinctive than some other bands that are string-based.

What is entirely unsurprising on Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October are the lyrics and tone of the album. Blue October is not known for being a peppy band (and that’s wonderful!). Apparently, their live shows are not where they break out their upbeat songs. Instead, songs have lines like “Now our history is for sale / And for that I apologize / You see you're my only know how / The study of when I believe I belonged to you / You see I've made you into something delicious, / My sweet ghost / So have I found your secret weak spot, baby? / Can you pretend I'm amazing? / I can pretend I'm amazing / Instead of what we both know” (“Amazing”) that are haunting and deeply emotive. The album oscillates between sad songs and angry songs, with little thematic variation.

The original song on Ugly Side is a personal narrative by Justin Furstenfeld. The musical storysong follows Furstenfeld as musical narrator as he journeys through a psychiatric hospital: “I speak of Colorado 5591 / Where there's a paxil-plated morning sun / A hug every now and then from everyone / Colorado 5591 / But would you take it away, boys? . . . And through this mad parade I walked alone / And tried to find music to my own song / But the music too loud or the crowd too strong / I kept to myself, I kept alone” (“Colorado 5591”). The song is good and clear, but not an essential Blue October track that justifies the creation of or the purchase of the album.

Ultimately, Ugly Side: An Acoustic Evening With Blue October gives fans remarkably little that is new and nothing that is truly incredible, making it impossible to recommend. The best track is “Into The Ocean,” the low point is the less memorable “Tomorrow.”

For other Blue October albums, please visit my reviews of:
Foiled
Approaching Normal
Sway

4/10

For other album reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Best Album Of The Year?! My Vote Is For Sway By Blue October!

The Good: Diverse musical sound, Vocal diversity, Cohesive album quality, Most of the lyrics, Replayability.
The Bad: Shorter than I like, One or two terrible rhymes.
The Basics: Sway reaffirms that Justin Furstenfeld and his band Blue October can rock in an meaningful and compelling way!


I have, admittedly, not been listening to a lot of new music this year. Frankly, most of the musical artists that I like are not putting out music this year or are in the recording studio now for late 2013 releases. It seems most of the early music from this year on the pop-rock front has been particularly banal (at least what I have heard of it on the radio) and no new artists have grabbed my attention to the degree that I’ve felt the desire to pick up any of their albums to give them a fair shake. So, declaring that Blue October’s new album Sway might well be the best album of 2013 is certainly biased by this reviewer for the simple fact that it is the only album from 2013 I’ve actually listened to and reviewed.

That said, Sway has an objectively great quality to it that makes it far, far better than any of the music on the radio right now and well worth picking up. In the absence of any other music that could get me to give it a second listen this year, Blue October has a stand-out album with Sway if for no other reason than I have enjoyed listening to it at least twenty times now. My wife is a fan of Blue October and it is because of her that I have heard Foiled (reviewed here!) and Approaching Normal (her favorite all-time album, reviewed here!) at least fifty times each. But my wife has been very wary of new Blue October albums because they have a hit-or-miss quality and the last few I picked up for her she did not enjoy (some she did not even keep). Sway, though, re-establishes a level of quality for Blue October albums that has had both my wife and I singing their praises once again.

With 13 tracks occupying 56:05, Sway is a musically-diverse album that has remarkably good overall cohesion. What binds the album together – despite having songs that have very different sounds to the songs – are the vocals of Justin Furstenfeld and the lyrics written by Furstenfeld. Justin Furstenfeld wrote or co-wrote each of the songs and they have his usual therapeutic bent (they sound like therapy sessions and ventings set to music, though Sway is – delightfully – far less angry than some of the other Blue October albums). Justin Furstenfeld (Jeremy Furstenfeld is a member of the band Blue October as well, hence the continued use of first and last names!) provides all of the lead vocals in addition to being the primary writer on all of the songs. He also plays guitar and was responsible for some of the programming and producing of Sway. Justin Furstenfeld is the heart and soul of Blue October and Sway is very much his creative vision.

Musically, Sway shows that Blue October has a serious level of range that they have not always portrayed in the past. The songs vary from fast pace strong rock and roll (“Hard Candy” – which sounds like it could have come from Nickelback – “Bleed Out” and “Angels In Everything”) to soft ballads (“Breathe, It’s Over”) to songs that border on trip-hop (“Debris”). In fact, the murky sound of “Fear” sounds unlike anything the band has ever done and that makes it a particularly compelling track. Unfortunately, the album’s weak link, “Things We Do At Night” falls down in part because of how it sounds very much like their prior song “Jump Rope.” As well, the single “Sway” has an entire sequence that sounds – musically and vocally – like a Matchbox Twenty phrase. Fortunately, those are the exceptions to the rule and most of Sway is highly-original, compelling rock and roll.

Vocally, Sway gives Justin Furstenfeld more to do than on some of the prior albums. Each and every song has him articulating clearly, which is something that sets him and Blue October apart from most rock bands (contemporary, alternative, and past!). Furstenfeld goes lower than usual and actually holds notes for a decent amount of time on songs like “Angels In Everything” and he goes higher and makes his vocals scratchier on “Hard Candy.” Even “Things We Do At Night” has a level of articulation and clarity that is uncommon and actually quite enjoyable.

There are very few albums where I find myself enjoying the album based on the first released single where I do not feel like the album has completely shot its wad on the one song. Sway was sold on the strength of the single “Bleed Out” (which should be a guaranteed Grammy nomination for Blue October, at the VERY least). “Bleed Out” is an impressive song with lines like “Wide awake / Like a dream / As simple as a secret / Being told, told to everyone but me /Will I / Bleed out / I gave it all / But you can't stop taking from me / And way down I know / You know where to cut me / With your eyes closed” and while it is arguably the best song on Sway, the rest of the album holds up exceptionally well on the lyrics front.

Indeed, the only exception to the general poetic greatness Justin Furstenfeld and his co-writers possess on Sway comes on the song “Things We Do At Night.” “Things We Do At Night” has a sadly pathetic and obvious rhyme scheme and a singsong quality to the song that is not worthy of being on the same album as “Debris.” Even worse is that the song mimics the other singsong Blue October track “Jump Rope,” though “Things We Do At Night” is nowhere near as repetitive. Still, Blue October can do much better than “Thing we do at night / Keeping it together / ‘til the morning light / When you’re nobody’s somebody / You want to be somebody’s somebody” (“Things We Do At Night”).

Sway does not burn it all out on one song. More than any album I’ve listened to in recent years, Sway has a strong middle. Tracks three through nine all sound like they could be viable radio singles, which is something uncommon on today’s albums. As one might expect from a Blue October album, many of the lyrics on Sway are introspective and moody. Still, few people can get away with the poetic lines “All my life / Been running from a pain in me / A feeling I don't understand / Holding me down / Rain on me / Underwater / All I am, getting harder / A heavy weight / I carry around. / Today / I don't have to fall apart / I don't have to be afraid / I don't have to let the damage / consume me, / My shadow see through me” (“Fear” ) and not sound completely sappy. Blue October is one of the bands that can sell that level of moodiness without sounding like it is whiny or appealing to emo teens.

That makes Sway an objective slam-dunk and while Blue October has, traditionally, been overlooked by musical awards, this album in an otherwise barren musical year, shines with a quality that makes it virtually impossible to ignore.

The best track is “Bleed Out” (though “Debris” and “Fear” solidly follow it and give it a run for its money!) and the low point is “Things We Do At Night.”

For other rock and roll albums, please visit my reviews of:
Dig Out Your Soul (2-Disc) - Oasis
Exile On Mainstream - Matchbox Twenty
Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers

8.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Rock And Roll Is Still Alive! Blue October Creates It With Approaching Normal

The Good: Decent instrumental work, Good lyrics, Generally good sound
The Bad: Shorter than I'd like, Somewhat repetitive vocal sound.
The Basics: A good rock and roll album, Approaching Normal by Blue October provides a sufficiently complicated sound to please most listeners.


My wife becomes easier to shop for with each passing day. So, for the winter holiday, I was very happy to present her with the album Approaching Normal by Blue October, an album she has been looking at since it originally came out in March. I swear, every time we went into Barnes & Noble, she would pick it up, shake her head at the $18.99 price tag and set it back down. Well, thanks to the holiday and the internet, I was able to present her with the coveted c.d. for our winter celebration. Since then, Approaching Normal has been in high rotation and I decided it was time to review this album, which I have now heard a good dozen times.

I generally like the album, which is definitely rock and roll and thus is very much what my partner was hoping for, as both a fan of Blue October and of rock and roll in general. And as one who is open to all forms of music, I quickly found the rock and roll on this to be fairly direct and familiar. The "familiar" aspect comes more from the fact that my partner has been playing Foiled (reviewed here!) pretty much since the minute we met and as a result, I've heard a lot of Blue October. Approaching Normal is in no way a departure, so fans will likely be pleased. As one who likes very few primarily male bands, I found myself enjoying the energy and angst of the very direct rock and roll sound of Approaching Normal.

With twelve tracks, clocking out at 48:10, Approaching Normal is very much the musical sound and vision of the band Blue October. The songs were all written by members of the band; in fact, most were written solely by lead singer and guitarist Justin Furstenfeld. The quintet plays all their own instruments and provides all of the main vocals as well. In fact, the only element of creative control the band appears to have ceded is producing and neither the band nor any member of it is responsible for any of the mixing or production. That said, one imagines they are generally pleased with the rest of the album as they controlled so many other aspects of it.

This is, in many ways, the archetypal modern rock album, which includes songs that are up-tempo and loud ("Say It," "Jump Rope") and slow, quieter rock ballads ("Blue Does," "Picking Up Pieces"). In general, this is an up-tempo album and those looking for something that is catchy as the first single on the radio, “Say It,” are likely to be disappointed. “The End,” for example, is an angry and angsty track which is just disturbing. And while “Weight Of The World” is thematically angsty, it is much quieter in its opening and more emotional misery presented in a musical form than cacophonic, like “The End.”

Instrumentally, Approaching Normal is a very typical guitar, bass, drums combination, though the band shakes it up a little through Ryan Delahoussaye. Delahoussaye plays violin, mandolin, and keyboards and this adds an added layer of production to many of the songs which makes the album sound quite a bit richer than other, similar, bands. Songs like “Been Down” sound more full and complete in the instrumental accompaniment than other mainstream rock and roll bands. That said, there are problems with the instrumentation and it is clear that the band is derivative of itself. "Should Be Loved" sounds like "Say It" and "My Never" opens sounding a lot like “Congratulations” off “Foiled.” This is not a bad thing necessarily, but while Blue October does not sound quite like anyone else, they do sound like themselves (much like anyone who has heard a Nickelback can recognize Chad Kroeger’s vocals almost instantly).

Vocally, Justin Furstenfeld has a strangely split vocal presentation. He alternates from quiet or melodic – “Should Be Loved” is actually beautifully performed – to scratchy and angry (“The End” is basically shouted out). Furstenfeld’s vocals are generally in the tenor and baritone range and he is articulate on songs like “Kangaroo Cry” and even makes the repetitive lines of “Say It” sound good. The only place on the album where the backing vocals and harmonizations with Furstenfeld are noticeable or overwhelm his voice are when schoolchildren join in on “Jump Rope.”

Lyrically, the album is more complex than most rock albums today. In fact, for the first time in a long time, I found myself listening to a song that used a decent level of metaphor such that listening to the song and reading the lyrics actually brought me an entirely different interpretation of the song. That song was “Kangaroo Cry” and while the song sounds like a break-up song, it reads like a strong, humanist perspective of an antiwar song. With lines like, “We've lost respect for decency / When one can turn our world into an ant pile / We run circles, no direction do I see / The dust has blinded you, the dust has blinded me . . . And you choose to break our families / Tell me you've used all precautions known / And I'll stand beside the ones who stood alone / How long will we have to sing until you finally bring our sons, our daughters home" ("Kangaroo Cry") it is clear the band has something to say and a generally clever way to go about saying it.

This is, however, not always true. While singing about life and change, they become somewhat monotonous when they sing "Now your older and the weight is on your shoulder, / Makes the world a little colder. / No more hiding in the old day, / Be strong, / Don’t you give up hope. / It will get hard, / Life’s like a jump rope. / Up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, yeah, / ‘Cause it will get hard" ("Jump Rope"). The song gets monotonous with the repetition and while there are few songs I enjoy repetition on, I did not get sick of the repetition in "Say It."

As well, even on human relationships, the group clearly has something it wants to say. On "Weight Of The World," one of the songs that earned the album its Parental Advisory sticker, the band tackles fear quite well. With the lines "There's voices there to dare me, / My father's here to scare me / And My mother she sits beyond the door she's / Curled up crying on the floor, / Look at what her son's done. / When the weight of all the world's gone wrong. / Wrong again. / Gone f-ing wrong again" ("Weight Of The World"), Blue October ventures into a psychological area many rock and roll bands will not venture into: singing about fear more than love and loneliness. And it works to help create a good overall album.

Anyone who like rock and roll music will find Approaching Normal a great investment as the lyrics and sound are fairly fresh and the album, despite being short, holds up over multiple listens very well.

The best track is "Dirt Room," the low point is "The End," which is just unpleasant to listen to.

For other rock and roll albums, please visit my reviews of:
10,000 Days - Tool
Cex Cells - Blaque Audio
The Best Of The Doors - The Doors


8.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index page for other albums and artists whose work I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Album That Spawned The Spin-offs, Foiled By Blue October Still Rocks.

The Good: Generally good lyrics, Decent, independent sound
The Bad: There are more complete versions on the market.
The Basics: Holding up after - literally - at least fifty listens, Foiled is a smart rock and roll album that illustrates talent lyrically, vocally and in its instrumental accompaniment.


One of the nice things about being married for me has to be how I keep discovering new and different things and how my wife and I are able to share things we like with one another. In my case, because my wife moved from Michigan to live with me in Upstate New York, it has meant me being exposed to a great number of her musical artists and movies (they provide her with a sense of consistency and an emotional tether to where she came from and her past). One of the most-played new-to-me artists is Blue October and for the last year, my wife has had Foiled in pretty consistent rotation when I haven't dominated the c.d. player. And over the course of the year, I've come to truly enjoy the album.

At the same time, I am hesitant to overrate something because simple repetition has numbed me to it. As well, there are many alternate versions to Foiled and I have to imagine that there is some merit to them, so because my partner and I have been listening to the “bare bones” edition of the album, I do feel a little cheated. In addition to versions that have additional tracks, there are remix albums which include the basic disc with a whole bonus disc and I am actually hoping to get such a thing in hand for enjoyment and review soon. That said, Foiled has been the consistent rock and roll soundtrack of the past year of my life, through all my Artists Of The Month, when my wife and I have been driving around or hanging out, it is what she puts on. And it is decent rock and roll with a fairly masculine sound, even if many of the lyrics are not the stereotypical masculine ideal.

With a dozen songs occupying 53:56 on c.d., Foiled is very much the musical vision of Blue October. It is the album that spawned the mainstream hit “Hate Me,” which is presented in an extended version on the album. All of the songs are written by members of Blue October and they provide all of the primary vocals as well. The group plays their own instruments and I was surprised (because on Approaching Normal it was not the case) lead singer and head writer Justin Furstenfeld also is credited as a co-producer on the album. In other words, the members of the band have quite a bit of creative control over the sound on the album; this is very much the musical vision they had for their album.

And that vision is a generally hard rock sound that contrasts with surprisingly sensitive vocals and lyrics. As a result, Blue October sounds like no one else on Foiled and it becomes a welcome change from the hip-hop and country which have taken over Top 40 stations and the monotony of rockers past their heyday and new screamers who seem to dominate the rock and roll stations. Blue October is what pop-rock would be doing if the genre were still considered mainstream. It is musically rich and includes samples (the “Hey Justin!” that is looped and altered over the piano playing at the end of “Hate Me” is fairly innovative, if not incredibly musical), but is largely the work of musicians playing instruments as opposed to programmers mixing sounds on a board.

In that regard, Blue October is a quintet that mixes guitar, bass and drums with heavy keyboards/pianos on many songs. On “Let It Go,” they are quiet and melancholy with a strong sense of crushing ennui, in large part because of the muted guitars being drown out by deeper bass and pianos. But more than a typical keyboard-driven band, Blue October pushes the electric guitars on “Drilled A Wire Through My Cheek.” They balance them well on “Congratulations” and that's an excellent example of how the band has a musically rich sound which is not like anyone else creating music today (indeed, I have a hard time comparing them to anyone else I have ever heard). Unfortunately, those who have not heard Foiled before might well be put off by the guitar-heavy opening, “You Make Me Smile,” which sounds like very typical rock and roll.

Vocally, Foiled is powered mostly by the vocals of Justin Furstenfeld. The lead singer has a smooth voice which dominates each track, save “Congratulations.” On that song, he is accompanied by Imogen Heap (her album, Ellipse, was reviewed here!) and the feminine voice added to the mix shakes up the sound of the album well. Furstenfeld is generally articulate and the speed at which he delivers the lyrics on "Overweight" is actually impressive, especially that he makes the lyrics understood. The album is pretty consistently angst-filled and on Foiled, the song "Drilled A Wire Through My Cheek" is less the exception than the rule. "X Amounts Of Words," for example, has a more techno beat to it, but it is still connoting a sense of loss and emptiness in its lyrics, vocal presentation and the instrumentation than most pop-rock songs.

Lyrically, one of the most refreshing aspect of Foiled is that not all the best songs were the radio hits. Instead, the band takes its creative juices and invest them in creating an album which is diverse and packed with decent songs. While "Drilled A Wire Through My Cheek" may be dark and repetitive, it works so well because it is unsettling and lines like "I use a wallet for your mouth / So when you bite you will not bleed / I drilled a wire through my cheek / And let it down and out my sleeve" are universally disturbing. While I've never been a fan of songs that are screamed in front of electric guitars, that one works!

As well, the song "Congratulations" becomes one of the best breakup anthems in years and it is unsettling in a quieter, more melodic way. That has a very simple sense of poetry in its lines "My words they don't come out right / But I'll try to say I'm happy for you / I think I'm going to take that drive / I want to give you something / I've been wanting to give to you for years / My heart’s / My heart, my pain won't cover up / You left me. . ." ("Congratulations"). Still, anyone who has been abandoned and hurt can undoubtedly relate to the song and that gives it a strength most pop-rock songs today do not possess.

Generally, the album has a decent sense of poetics, even when it is repetitive. "Hate Me" is simple and repetitive, but it is decent because it expresses a strong emotion well. Similarly, the poetics of "I assemble all the sand that cover wedding beaches / To build a castle so your mom would have a place to stay / Behind the water slide and down the hill where heaven reaches / Land and time is left to float away (yeah) / So rest assured I have the key to every opening / To every wishing well that's deep enough to dream (dream) / I want to show you just how fascinating kissing is / When earth collides with all the space between (yeah)" ("Sound Of Pulling Heaven Down") possesses beautiful, if horrifying imagery. It is easy to hear why the band is so successful as a result.

But even after four years on the market, what is wonderful about Foiled is that it still sounds fresh and diverse and it is easy to listen to and enjoy. Anyone who likes rock and roll that is more than just a simple guitar, bass and drum band will find something to enjoy on "Foiled;" I'd even bet they would find a lot to enjoy.

The best song is "Congratulations," the low point is the less memorable "Let It Go."

For other male bands, please visit my reviews of:
Dig Out Your Soul - Oasis
A Rush Of Blood To The Head - Coldplay
By The Way - Red Hot Chili Peppers

8/10

For other music reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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