Blood Red Shoes – Fire Like This (V2)
3/5
By: Tim Dellow
It’s normal to open reviews of sophomore albums with statements like “on this their second album, insert band name, find themselves at a juncture between serving a hardcore fanbase and transcending it with something that a wider audience would appreciate (and by that us snobby journos mean we prefer the first ‘rawer’ album).”
This is the kind of rhetoric that used to be reserved for third albums; the make or break album back in the day, but in today’s culture of writing a band off sometimes even before their first single (“man, I preferred the demos on their MySpace…”) it seems a striking achievement for any act to reach their second album.
The fact that Blood Red Shoes are so outside of this thinking is just one of the multifarious reasons that I love this band.
Taking a path much more in keeping with Hüsker Dü than any modern day careerists, this band has continued gigging relentlessly, refining their approach, getting closer to the essence of what makes them a great band, and delivering a solid second album that builds on the first steadily and effectively.
Blood Red Shoes are a two-piece rock band who live, smash the shit out of a grunge template and on record sound bigger than Courtney Love’s pie-Hole. And to their credit, the sheer volume and energy captured in these takes by producer Mike Crossey is spectacular. ‘Don’t Ask’ tears its way out of your speakers; a rallying defiant teenage tantrum that seems to celebrate the notion that it has ever had the chance to be created, committed to tape and fizzle across your eardrums.
‘Light It Up’ is a close link to the first LP, and shows that The Kills aren’t the only UK band who can pull off this kind of college rock whilst tender moments such as ‘When We Wake’ are still substantial pieces, muscular and powerful, successfully standing up to the following aggression of ‘Keeping It Close’.
The closing ‘Colours Fade’ is their next level jumping off point for the third album taking a Sonic Youth style Dischord(ant) guitar and relentless drum pound into oceans constructed from cymbals and vocals before jumping off the end of the pier into a squall of possibilities.
Fire Like This is proof that it is possible to take your own path, on your own terms, moving along a path that one hopes, will yield many more engaging and improving records, time after time.
Artists in this article: Blood Red Shoes
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