This past January, The Rescues released their third full-length album titled Blah Blah Love and War.
The Rescues are well known for their four part harmonies. While they have a full sound that is distinctly their own, I don’t feel like their new album is anything different than any of the music that has been pumped out in the past few years.
There is no doubt however, that their tunes are catchy.
The opening song “Did It Really Even Matter” is begging to be covered by Glee if it hasn’t been already. It sets the mood for the rest of the album: chipper, but the lyrics are a bit cheesy.
Overall, if you’re looking to dance around your home in a bout of good spirits, The Rescues are for you. However if you’re looking for hard hitting lyrics, they probably won’t be your go-to.
I will say that they’ve done a really good job with the flow of each song to the next, the album builds and drops with an over arching rhythm.
“Never Let You Go” is a bit slower than the rest of the album. This and other tunes on the album remind me of a lot of Snow Patrol.
Each track highlights a different instrument and rotates each band member’s vocal styles. In the third track, “Arrow”, The Rescues feature a duet, and while it is filled with cliché lyrics, I did admire the evident difference in style from song to song.
A little heavier on the synth and drums, the fourth track “Be My Cure” is basically what is expected from a song with that title. Cue the random violin in the middle, and we can move right along.
“Under The Weather” is definitely a song that you can get stuck in your head. For better or worse, you’ll have to accept that before you give it a listen.
The loveliest harmonies came in the seventh song called “The Longest Winter.” However being a lyric freak I had a hard time getting past this opening verse: “This is the longest Winter, that anyone can remember, we shut ourselves away inside our separate rooms, all of the locks are are frozen, the windows they won’t open, when April comes we won’t know what to do.”
That being said, “The Longest Winter” is by far the best story telling song. And while again, I find it a bit cheesey, I can see where the message in this tune would be the most identifiable with listeners. It essentially describes the point in a relationship where it’s time to get out but there is still some kind of hold.
The album then picks back up again with “Love Like Cyanide.” It picks the beat back up for more of a dance beat and plays with vocal echoes.
The obvious stand out song of the album is “Everything’s Gonna Be Better Next Year.” Both rhythmically and lyrically, it is no doubt the strongest. This is another example of how the song title really sums up what the song is about. Buzzfeed called this tune, “the jam that will get us through 2013.” It even ends with a few rifts of “Auld Lang Syne.”
I found “Get Back” similar to “Be My Cure,” and “Let Me Down Easy” was nothing particularly special.
But the final track, “Bigger Picture,” was definitely the natural ending to the album. For The Rescues it is definitely their epic tune. Again good harmonies and like “Everything’s Gonna Be Better Next Year,” these lyrics were a lot more meaningful.
Overall, I wasn’t terribly impressed with Blah Blah Love and War. It has its good qualities, but for me, the bad out weighed those.