Absinthe Blind
Rings
Mud
Absinthe Blind sound to me like a band badly in need of an imaginative producer to help better realize their work and keep a tighter reign on their excesses. Somewhat reminiscent of Starflyer 59 (probably because they share the same influences), they combine silvery vocals, interesting chords and mostly skillful players.
Unfortunately, underneath it all they also have a drummer who has to go, unmemorable hooks, a badly dated sound and jarring compositional flourishes. Song after (long – average length five minutes) song ends with stretched-out codas that enthrall the listener the first couple of times it happens. Then it becomes an all-too-obvious sign that the band cannot find the way out of their songs, as though they were stuck in a velvety dream from which, however hard they try, they cannot awake. The kind of ultimately unrewarding, self-indulgent music that is more fun to play than it is to listen to.
Some of the lyrics, meanwhile, are crying out for a cheap-shot response. “It’s our turn to write the Beatles song…” opening a track called “The Dreamers Song,” for example, all but begs the reviewer to comment, “Yeah, you are dreaming.”
Moreover, it is not at all clear whether Absinthe Blind know that, which is an important consideration. If they do, then it is an attempt (failed, but an attempt) at tongue-in-cheek wit. If they don’t…
Absinthe Blind’s Web site says they were teenagers when the band first formed in 1996, which if my arithmetic is not incorrect (always a dangerous assumption) means they should now be in their early-to-mid twenties, approximately. I do not mean this unkindly, but they sound like it. Maturity will be the best thing that could happen to this band, if they make it that far.
Absinthe Blind: http://www.absintheblind.com/
