{"id":22400,"date":"2014-05-28T12:01:04","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T12:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-bloom-thousand-yard-stare\/"},"modified":"2018-03-17T15:35:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T15:35:22","slug":"album-review-bloom-thousand-yard-stare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-bloom-thousand-yard-stare\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Bloom &#8211; Thousand Yard Stare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/tumblr_inline_n65c9aG4AO1qheirv.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">Unless your band name happens to be The Xcerts, I would strongly suggest avoiding comparisons to Brand New in your pitch-paragraph. This oddly frequent, and yet most ill-advised, move is the closest to guaranteed disappointment as you\u2019re likely going to get. That doesn\u2019t mean that the comparison isn\u2019t often apt; said band have indeed undeniably had a lasting influence on the emo-scene (annoyingly so, some would add), but it\u2019s a comparison that ultimately does more harm than good. Thankfully <strong>Bloom<\/strong>\u2019s <em>&lsquo;Thousand Yard Stare&rsquo;<\/em> swiftly eschews any fear of the copycat syndrome and, in a rather unexpected twist, might best be described as the more chilled-out version American cousin of partially Scottish favourites The Xcerts.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u20192 AM Breakfast\u2019<\/em> makes for an intriguing opening. The sounds of what vaguely identifies like the scuffle and background noise of a cafeteria is overlaid with the synthesized, reverberated and overdubbed of Luke Granered\u2019s voice. A poem of sorts with pretty electronic harmonies, it\u2019s a enticing way to lure the listener in. That, is essentially as good as it gets here. Of course, that\u2019s a little disingenuous on my part. Immediate follow-up <em>\u2019Blue Valentine\u2019<\/em> is, for long stretches, a banal arpeggiated slow-tempo ballad, but also a tale of two halves. Harmonies get stretched into something altogether more exciting and a unfussy fuzzy guitar solo brings the track to a satisfying close. <em>\u2019Yet\u2019<\/em> displays all the songwriting skill of an experienced emo-musician, but the execution disappointingly lacks panache where it feels like it should.<!-- more --><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>In fact, that criticism could reasonably be leveled throughout the album. There\u2019s plenty of evidence that Granered is a talented songwriter, evidently at ease with the conventions of the genre he\u2019s operating within. Just take a look at <em>\u2019Losers\u2019<\/em>. The execution, on the other hand, is irritatingly one-note time and time again. There\u2019s a genuine tension between the obvious good songs begging to be fleshed-out and the persistent dashing of that promise. Hand Granered someone half-decent for arrangements, and we\u2019d likely be looking at an altogether different beast. However, nobody need give up on this solo project just yet, it\u2019s just a question of &ldquo;can the music rise up to the quality on the page&rdquo;. I certainly hope it does.<\/p>\n<p>2.5\/5<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2019Thousand Yard Stare\u2019<\/em> by <strong>Bloom<\/strong> is out now on <strong>Broken Circles<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bloom<\/strong> links: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Bloombandtn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by James Berclaz-Lewis (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bearclawlewis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@bearclawlewis<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unless your band name happens to be The Xcerts, I would strongly suggest avoiding comparisons to Brand New in your pitch-paragraph. This oddly frequent, and yet most ill-advised, move is the closest to guaranteed disappointment as you\u2019re likely going to get. That doesn\u2019t mean that the comparison isn\u2019t often apt; said band have indeed undeniably [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8181],"tags":[5879,3275,4387,9921],"class_list":["post-22400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-post","tag-album-reviews","tag-bloom","tag-broken-circles","tag-thousand-yard-stare"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Album Review: Bloom - Thousand Yard Stare - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unless your band name happens to be The Xcerts, I would strongly suggest avoiding comparisons to Brand New in your pitch-paragraph. 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