Album Review: The Blood Arm – Turn And Face Me
There are many different things that go into the mix to create the perfect Blood Arm album; guitars, drums, keys and vocals from all members of the band are all present and correct, but the most important ingredient of all is the Californian sunshine, without which such a joyful, crazy, exuberant album as ‘Turn And Face Me’ would just not be possible. With all the band members contributing to the backing vocals it sounds like a genuine group effort rather than a frontman with a bunch of session musicians. Employing several musical styles and absolutely bursting with ideas and energy, there’s so much going on here with the music, backing vocals, handclaps and various other devices that it sounds like it was recorded live in the studio, I can’t imagine they’d be able to lay down individual tracks. Either way the end result is an album that has a wild, unpredictable energy to it, imagine the Jim Jones Revue dealing in pop rather than old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll. As for highlights, well ‘Introducing Randy Newman’ and ‘She’s A Guillotine’ are among the livelier tracks, but odd little ditty ‘Forever Is Strange’ is my favourite track. From album opener ‘She’s A Guillotine’ to closing track ‘Forever Is Strange’, ‘Turn and Face Me’ is bubbly, infectious, inventive pop but most of all it’s fun with a capital ‘F’, and by the sounds of it the band had as much fun recording it as I did lidtening to it! 8/10
Mark Cousens
Out now on PAU! Records
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