Labels: self released
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Probably the hardest thing, in the entire world I would say, is to be a good emo band in 2014. Anyone can be in a shit emo band, or an ok emo band, or a pretty decent emo band, but if you are going to be a good emo band, well, first up you have to have good taste in emo, and believe me, not many people in 2014 have good taste in emo, it’s why I don’t sell any records. The Blue Period though, these 4 people, they clearly have good taste in not just emo, but indie rock in general. They have made 4 songs of gentle, swaying, emo + indie rock with a wintery feel. Like the low key Promise Ring stuff mixed with emo Ida. Bands don’t really sound like this any more, but when I think about it, hardly any even sounded like it in the first place. It’s perfectly judged and for a demo, quite astonishing really, they have totally grasped the nuances of how to be any good. The songs flow beautifully, injecting little swirls and changes subtly in a manner you haven’t heard since Ethel Meserve were strutting their stuff. The music is certainly mellower than that band, soft and soothing, with vocals just nudging at the edges of the songs, except on the closer when they get more upset and emote louder. That perfect first 60 seconds of “Set Lines”, man. And here on Carpool they sneak a keyboard past me, guarding the door, trying to stop emo bands from going near the blasted instrument, but get this, it actually works. It doesn’t sound like the bloody Get Up Kids. Just a little added sonic structure that they weave into the song effortlessly.
You don’t get to be this good by accident, you gotta know what makes this kind of music work yet also have this weird intangible shit going on, where everyone involved in the music is an emo fucking bastard and not just along for the ride. Blue Period know it, they emanate it, and you will know it as soon as you hear one song from start to finish if you ever gave a shit about this kind of band.
Midwestmo bands conjure up all these images of wide open spaces, corn fields, long freight trains, melancholy kids just being a bit down on their luck and confused. Twinkly music is all pretty and wintery, little swirls of guitar that sound like snowdrops and crisp blue skies on frosty mornings. That’s what those musical descriptors mean to me, but not to many others. The Blue Period play my twinkly midwestmo and this is the most lovely music I have heard for quite some time. Besotted.