Album Review: Breathing Blue - Breathing Blue EP

Breathing Blue’s self-titled debut is exceedingly clever. There are moments where you hear breif glimpses of the band’s influences, but the moments are so breif there’s no time to pinpoint exactly who the influences are. What is plainly clear however, is that the band are amazing musicians, as each song is cleverly layered with intricate guitar parts and irregular timing. This results in the band having their own unique sound, and leaves them sitting comfortably outside a number of genres.

Surprisingly, despite their genre-bending abilities, Breathing Blue are very accessible. If there is one part of their music that is less accessible, it is vocalist J.T’s voice. Though not completely grating, it takes a little getting use to and veers from a Head Automatica era Daryl Palumbo wailing to a more structured Adam Lazarra approach. By final song ‘Sparkle’, the listener should be able to appreciate how his more off-kilter voice suits the music. ‘Sparkle’ is one of the outstanding tracks with the New Jersey five-piece sounding like Beloved(US) being fronted by a jaded Adam Lazarra. It works beautifully.

In all honesty, there isn’t a bad track on the EP, but it is a close run thing for the best track. The wonderfully catchy ‘From Athens to Alcatraz’ embraces the spirit of rock n roll without sounding dated. It’s super upbeat and reminds me of a less depressing Classic Case jamming tunes off of Socratic’s Drive Thru debut. This may sound like a confusing idea, but one listen to the track and hopefully all will be clear. The other truely superb track is ‘Real Eyes’. Perhaps the moodiest of the tracks, the dual guitars and JTs soaring vocals backed with the thumping beat of the drums makes for an epic track. ‘Real Eyes’ ends with the entire band singing the track’s refrain; a spectacular end for a spectacular track.

Breathing Blue have really laid out a statement of intent over these six tracks. The band don’t succumb to the current trend or dumb their music down to shift units. Though this unfortunately means the band are unlikely to be comercially viable, it does however leave us with a unique and thoroughly enjoyable slab of music.

5/5

'Breathing Blue' by Breathing Blue is released on June 11th on ES Music.

Breathing Blue on MySpace and Purevolume.

Dan Issitt