FAKE

Gone is the house at the sea front which served as a recording studio. This time, Blow Up Hollywood lock themselves into a state of the art recording studio and does the album this way.

The result is a much more considered expression. The big difference is a more dense sound with more than one reference to the likes of R.E.M and Pink Floyd. There is also a lot of references to electronica music here. In other words, a very modern sound which should win the band a lot of new friends among the art rock fans. And it did. This album is a pretty major success which opened up a lot of doors for this band. It is easy to understand why.

The sound is still dominated by the vocalist Steve Messina and his understated, but still excellent vocals. The other dominant instrument is the elegant synth. There is also a lot of guitars on this album. Even some slide guitars. Low and behold; there is even guitar solos here ! The addition of the guitars has added another dimension to this band and improved their sound. But Blow Up Hollywood, despite of their bomb(astic) name, still use an understated sound where less is more. And it works like a treat.

The quality is superb throughout. This album even have a signature song......... and dare I say it...... a hit. This song is called Ocean and it is a brilliant song. Some melancholic sounding verses dominated by the vocalist and then there is a long guitar solo from the excellent Thad DeBrock. This is four minutes of pure magic, no less. The rest of the songs are in the same vein too. They all follow a melancholic, but still strangely uplifting pattern.

This album is an album for the silent nights alone or together with the special person in your life. It is also a progressive album which also takes the best from the American songbook and merges that into this album. This album leaves me very uplifted indeed.

4 stars

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