REVIEW: Blossoms- Cool Like You

Hello Everyone!

So, this Friday (27th April), Blossoms released their second album, Cool Like You, a follow up to their eponymous debut, Blossoms, which was released in 2016.

There is something we have to talk about before we get into the nitty gritty of the review...the odd promotion/teaser campaign, which saw the drummer, Joe Donovan get interviewed and insult his bandmate, lead singer, Tom Ogden. This was followed by a spoof "Where are they now?" video, which saw Joe set up a ice cream van business,  called Cone Rose, after Blown Rose, Charlie become a Stockport County FC mascot, Josh create a food and drink documentary and Myles creating a (fake) rap record. This all caused rumours of a split, complete with a hotline number for distressed fans. This was later revealed to be a voice message with a possible taster of new music in the background.

Thankfully, this was all a ruse, in preparation for the band announcing new single, I Can't Stand It, on the 1st March, followed by an announcement of Cool Like You the very next day, on the 2nd of March.  The other give away that this "rift" was fake was that they soon announced a string of festival dates in the run up of these two announcements, including TRNSMT festival in Scotland and Neighbourhood Weekender in Liverpool.




From the very first listen, it is clear that Blossoms want to stick to their 80s electronic sound and it is often good when music artists stick to their sound that everyone knows and loves. OK...it may be a little bit boring to some who may have wanted a change but at the same time, often, when bands do release songs that sound different to something they had done before, fans turn against them and ask why they didn't stick to their sound they are known for. This is why I think it was good that Blossoms stuck to what they know.

Their opening track, There Is a Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls) wouldn't sound out of place in a 70's/80's disco, with some fans on Twitter comparing it to ABBA's sound. In fact, fellow track, Giving Up the Ghost has a guitar sound in the background of Ogden's vocals that definitely sounds familiar...I'm thinking Voulez-Vous? Oh...and that stomping beat to Lying Again...I'm getting a Gimme Gimme Gimme vibe.



It's not just ABBA that Blossoms seem to be getting inspiration from...it seems they have used their previous album as a reference in order to build up that already epic electronic sound that they've got going on within their music...is it me or there is a hint of Blown Rose in the title track, Cool Like You? Unfaithful...yep it is clear they used At Most a Kiss as a starting point when coming up with the instrumentals to this song.  Considering that this album had a been a two year project, this source of inspiration is highly likely. In fact, Blossoms' frontman, Tom Ogden, even went as far as saying There's a Reason Why was a sequel to one of the previous album's songs, Getaway, during a Radio 1 interview.

Overall,  Blossoms have proved that sticking to your sound, along with taking inspiration from 70s/80s bands, works wonders when it comes to producing an album and proves that everyone should have a bit of Blossoms in their lives! Put it this way...it's not going to be, nor was it ever going to be a difficult second album...

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