Thursday 13 December 2012

The Blakes - Narwhal

Single review by KevW


Many an album has been inspired by or born out of loss and distress, and it's no coincidence Seattle trio The Blakes named their most recent album 'Art Of Losses'. Released in the summer, its recording process was fractured by grief at the passing of family members and friends. They ploughed on and the resulting album was a success. New single and video 'Narwhal' deals directly with a different kind of anguish: that of street kids, with whom director Travis GutiƩrrez Senger spent time and researched extensively for the shoot. The resulting video details the dark underbelly of this particular section of society, involving sex, drugs and violence.

Needless to say that visually it's fairly hard hitting. The song isn't quite so grim on the surface, it's an upbeat electro-rock number that's both catchy and a little mysterious. Dig a little deeper and the track is littered with references to the devil, hangmen and people waiting to take your soul. This isn't a happy tune, but because of the contrast it works on more than one level and should appeal to fans each looking for different aspects from music. Hopefully they can keep the quality and emotional punch as high on their next record, but without the tragedies that accompanied this one. A brief note; turn up the volume on the video, it's only set at half way for some reason.



The Blakes' website

Buy the album





For more news, reviews and downloads follow The Sound Of Confusion on Facebook or Twitter

contact@thesoundofconfusion.co.uk

No comments:

Post a Comment