Thursday, May 18, 2023

“The Basement” and “Beautiful World” by Blondes – Song Features


     Blondes are sharing singles as they approach the release of the EP “In Separation” (July 14). This post features two of the six songs from the EP. “The Basement” and “Beautiful World” are fundamentally different from the perspectives of melody and personality. However, the lyrics to both are socially aware and engaging guitar riffs populate the pair.
 
     Blondes are based in Nottingham, UK. In fact, the band formed at the University of Nottingham in 2017. The members are now Will Potter (vocals), Dan Stroud (“Stroudy”) (guitar), Alex Davison (guitar), and Dave Annis (percussion).


      It is always gratifying when a band that is enjoying a surge in recognition gives a tip of the cap to music history. Almost 60 years ago, Bob Dylan released a promotional film clip (today called a “video”) with his song “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” The amazingly young Dylan (1965) flipped cue cards as the song played. The first card was the word “Basement.” In the official video of “The Basement,” the first cue card bears the same word.
 
      The intro for “The Basement” features skillfully layered relatively “clean” guitars. Then, the first verse begins, and the bass grabs the instrumental spotlight, while the vocals show that there is no backseat in a song from Blondes. The band explains that the song:
  “This is a song that started as a demo during the first lockdown, and it was written pretty much completely remotely by emailing it to each other and adding parts! Fittingly, it’s a song about feeling isolated and looking for a way out, which I imagine was a very well known feeling for everyone at that time. I love the energy of this track and the way it dials up in the choruses. We returned to work with Rich Turvey on this one, who produced the majority of our first EP. He helped take the demo we’d made and step it up into the thumping single-ready track it’s become.”

     “The Basement” by Blondes


     “Beautiful World” is more melodically charming but more vocally melancholic than “The Basement.” It is a positive indication of the quality of an EP when a favorite song is difficult to select or shifts depending upon the current mood of the listener. That’s our situation with Blonde’s upcoming EP “In Separation,” even before all six songs are available.
 
     While speaking about "Beautiful World," Alex Davison said: 
  “It’s my favourite that we’ve written so far. It’s about our relationship with our environment and each other. We wrote it to speak not just for ourselves but to anyone that finds themselves looking around at our world and wondering just how we’ve become so disconnected from one another and the planet. We hope you like it.”

     “Beautiful World” by Blondes

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