Great Bloomers - Speak of Trouble [Album]

May 9, 2009, 12:29 AM

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Though officially a secret, Canadian residents Great Bloomers are North-America’s next step necessary to rule the world - by spoiling the music scene with average stereotyped Americana songs. Mid-tempo piano based songs about everyday life, with Lynyrd Skynyrd inspired licks and sung by an irritating, over dramatising singer in the tradition of Eddie Vedder and Tom Petty with nice little melodies, and every now and then a guitar solo. You can all find it on the Bloomers album ‘Speak of Trouble’. And though the album won’t be nominated for most original ever, if you like this kind of music there’s not much wrong with it.

Basically, the only trouble is that the Bloomers try to get out of the middle of the road in quite a forceful way. Though their initiative for trying to be different should be applauded, the way they do it – changing both melody and tempo halfway through the songs - literally kills the atmosphere and the logic of the songs. They just put two completely unrelated songs in one and pretend that nothing happened. Even the title song, which takes off quite promising and which turns smoothly into a nice tribute to the Beach Boys, takes it's own life when for no reason– and hardly a minute after Brian Wilson and his friends came by - the band continues with a completely misplaced ‘na na na na’ sing-a-long.

Nevertheless, if you like rụ̈cksichtslos mid-tempo songs with country influenced piano licks led by a Tom Petty wannabe this might still be your next best thing. In order to enjoy the album though, you must absolutely, no matter what, under all circumstances, ignore, and if possible destroy, the awkward lyrics. Are you the sweet naïve fan who thinks that quoting lines from ‘Dark Horse’ (maybe this song/ could help you along/ like nothing’s wrong) and ‘This Ain’t You’ (you make it seem/ like you have a dream) is just deliberately putting lines out of context, then all your good intentions will die a horrible death when you reached the fascinating lyrics of ‘Last of my Faith’; 'I have seen your face before/ and I have seen your car before/ I recognize the dent in your passenger door/ Yes I have seen your face before'. Just fascinating.

Though there’s nothing wrong with a band who combines ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ with Beach Boys choirs eleven times and that is fronted by the Canadian love child of Tom Petty, there isn’t anything special about it neither. There’s basically just one thing Great Bloomers make clear with their album: the stream of cliché loving Americana bands sadly enough hasn’t dried up yet.

Speaking of trouble…..

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