Blaue Blume "Country" (2022) (single)

Country, single

release date: Sep. 9. 2022

format: digital (1 x File, FLAC)

[single rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]

producer: Blaue Blume

label: HFN Music - nationality: Danmark

Tracklist: 1. "Country" (4 / 5)

Single release by Blaue Blume and the band's first actual release Bell of Wool (Nov. 2019) except from the remix of "Loveable" - the first by Trentemøller (released Feb. 2020) and one by Emil Rottmayer (released Mar. 2021). Since that album and in the span of the most recent months the band has been reduced to a trio following the leave of guitarist Robert Buhl Jensen, who then leaves behind a band consisting of vocalist Jonas Smith, guitarist & bassist Buster Lassen, and with Søren Buhl-Jensen on keyboards & drums.

"Country" has so far only been issued in digital format, and the song is a laidback and quiet track with traces to Talk Talk with a certain jazzy quality and with elements from country and progressive pop, and with the pompous production of Blaue Blume in behold. It's beautiful and heartfelt, and it still shows the band's great potential. The single may be found on the band's bandcamp-profile.

Blaue Blume "Bell of Wool" (2019)

Bell of Wool

release date: Nov. 8, 2019

format: digital (9 x File, FLAC - HFN 99)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,76]

producer: Blaue Blume

label: HFN Music / Universal - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Swimmer" - 2. "Someday" (live) - 3. "Morgensol" - 4. "Vanilla" - 7. "Sobs" - 8. "Loveable" (live) - 9. "New Navel"

2nd full-length album by Blaue Blume follows two years after the release of the 4-track ep Sobs and four [!] full years after the sophomore Syzygy (Oct. 2015). The band followed the debut by playing concerts and at festivals but were forced to withdraw from further band activities in 2018 as front figure and lead vocalist Jonas Smith was overtaken by depression, which explains the long time in between albums.

Bell of Wool sort of continues from Sobs with more instrospective songs - some of which is said to have evolved from Smith's lyrics about personal experiences and sentiments during his time out. It's still music bonded with 1980s dreampop but also with links to Talk Talk and Antony and the Johnsons, and then there's athe addition of a stronger electronic sound, which bonds with contemporaries like Beach House, ultimately making this the band's so far most varied album. And on top of the various styles, the songs are both with English as well as Danish lyrics, although, only "Morgensol" is in Danish. The track was released June 14, 2019 as the album's first single, and then followed by the singles "Loveable" (Sep. 13, 2019) and finally "Vanilla" (Oct. 11, 2019) before the album release.

Smith still executes the lyrics with his strong vibrant and technically skilled vocal, which perhaps forever will bring to mind Elisabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins but Jonas Smith is much more than just a mere copyist and the production sound always delivers on highest level.

The album is without doubt one of the best Danish albums of the year.

Highly recommended.

[ bandcamp ]

[ Soundvenue 5 / 6 stars ]

Blaue Blume "Sobs" (2017) (ep)

Sobs (ep)

release date: Nov. 17, 2017

format: digital (4 x File, FLAC - HFN 70)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,65]

producer: Blaue Blume

label: HFN Music - nationality: Denmark

Tracklist: 1. "Macabre" - 2. "Ebony" (4 / 5) - 3. "Mayhem" - 4. "Haven't You"

4-track ep by Blaue Blume following its debut album Syzygy (2015). Since then, the band has moved to the German independent HFN Music ['Hafen Music'], a label who has released albums of several other Danish acts including Trentemøller, Reptile Youth, Lydmor, Kasper Bjørke and Jacob Bellens. Furthermore, the quartet now consists of lead vocalist Jonas Smith, guitarist Robert Buhl-Jensen, new bassist Buster Lassen, and drummer Søren Buhl-Jensen.

"Macabre" was produced with Nis Bysted and released as standalone single in March, and it's here with the uptempo killer "Ebony" the ep's strongest tracks but the two remainders are not bad, making this a strong release with great promises for a forthcoming album.

[ bandcamp ]

Blaue Blume "Syzygy" (2015)

Syzygy [debut]
release date: Oct. 23, 2015
format: digital (10 x File, MP3)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]
producer: Aske Rud Jørgensen, Blaue Blume
label: A:larm - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Candy" - 2. "Sky" - 3. "Bouyant Forces" - 4. "Thinking of Roxy" - 5. "On New Year's Eve (Reprise)" - 8. "Tranquil Curtains" - 9. "Before the Sun Blows Up Our Lungs"
[ The Syzygy sessions ]

Studio full-length album debut by Danish dreampop band Blaue Blume following its ep debut Beau & Lorette (June 2014).
Musically, the band builds on inspirational sources as diverse as Cocteau Twins, Jeff Buckley, and Antony and the Johnsons. In that respect it's quite original, and what seemed like a promising release with the 2014 ep turns out as a more solidified and wholesome affair with this one.
Yes, it's a mighty fine accomplishment but alas, I think, too few (will ever) know of it. The band's decision to only release through streaming services and on vinyl makes it less accessible, which I think is really bad as the music requires high fidelity equipment. The soundscape is spacious and voluminous - how does that comply with streaming services with 192 / 256kps?
The album is the last in the initial line-up with Peter Bøgvad on bass.
[ EDIT of 2022: Thankfully, the band has now made their music accessible in FLAC-format from their bandcamp profile! ]
[ Soundvenue 5 / 6, Gaffa.dk 6 / 6 stars ]

Blaue Blume "In The Disco Lights" Live, Koncerthuset, Copenhagen, 2014

Blaue Blume "In The Disco Lights"

This is evidently a song with reference to Cocteau Twins but what could have been a total rip-off only comes out as a tribute and great great track.

Blaue Blume "Beau & Lorette" (2014)

Beau & Lorette, ep [debut]
release date: Jun. 2, 2014
format: digital (5 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,84]
producer: Blaue Blume
label: MBO - nationality: Denmark

Tracklist: 1. "Birthday" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Lost Sons of Boys" (4 / 5) (live) - 3. "In Disco Lights" (4 / 5) - 4. "Lemon Tree" (3,5 / 5) - 5. "Conventional Dreams (Our House)" (3 / 5)

[ live session of 'Lost Sons of Boys' and 'Lemon Tree' ]

5-track studio ep debut album by Blaue Blume, a Danish band consisting of composer Jonas Holst Smith on vocals and rhythm guitar, Peter Bøgvad on bass, and the brothers Jensen Buhl: Robert on lead guitar and Søren on drums.

I first heard the band play live at the Danish music award show Gaffa Prisen. They played the track "Lost Sons of Boys" at an instrumentally and technically very high level. Most extraordinary, though, is the strong and charachteristic vocal of Jonas Smith who sings like a clone of Antony Hegarty, Morrissey, and Elizabeth Fraser [!] of Cocteau Twins. "In Disco Lights" sounds much like a cover of / tribute to several songs by Cocteau Twins in their classic dream pop style, but the other tracks point more in the direction of Antony & The Johnsons without obvious chamber pop but with art pop and neo-psychedelic pop as the most obvious styles.

I'm really impressed by the band's skills and of this first release, although, it really points in several directions. It's quite un-Danish and very British in style and in a way that could make it difficult for the band to be noticed, but they do deserve a closer attention, and I'm really looking forward to hear their first full studio album release, which should be planned for release in 2015.

Highly recommended.

<  show lyrics >

~ ~ ~
"In Disco Lights"

"I carry you and your mind you’ll never leave this night
You run around in this life gullible and blind
We’re solemnly declared young screaming from our lungs
The choruses of bad songs never fail in having fun

Baby don't cry I’ll take you dancing
Maybe we'll die our heads faced the disco light
You said easy now it’s done

Badambadambadam
What is in your heart?
badambadambadam
Is it everything you are?

You headed out without plans drew your lover's name in the sand
With money in your hands you have power yet no demands
Forever this romance forever life's a lust of man
Feast till you can't stand and vomit where you can

Baby don't cry I'll take you dancing
Maybe we'll die our heads faced the disco light
You said easy now it’s done

Badambadambadam
What is in your heart?
badambadambadam
Is it everything you are?

All the night - it´s you and I love - all the night - you and I love
We'll never change the times - So what if we don't care?
Isn't life beneath the sun a little dream for the lucky ones?

Baby don't cry I'll take you dancing
Maybe we'll die our heads faced the disco light
You said easy now it's time

Badambadambadam
What is in your heart?
badambadambadam
Is it everything you are?"

~ ~ ~