Blusom
Go Slowly All the Way Round the Outside
Second Nature
Go Slowly All the Way Round the Outside was apparently designed as a “friends only” home recording back in 2001 by JME White and Mike Behrehausen, a couple of Denver musicians. It was never meant for public consumption, but The Postal Service’s rise to the top of electro-pop has made this album magically commercial, and *POW* here we are.
Let that be the only cynical aside I include in this review, because this album is extremely good. It’s as if Thom Yorke had formed Looper, writing fireside acoustic ruminations and dozing off to Boards of Canada’s precocious ambient electronics. “X-Photo” is full of Morrissey-ish melodrama, while “On Glass” pleads for brokenhearted mix tape inclusion. “Off of Cliffs” spins depressing subject matter around a club-worthy disco beat, and “Versus Techno” features some wicked electronic bass manipulations.
The album’s only misstep is “Attack of the Toothless Luthiers,” which I take as a parody of Radiohead’s “Fitter, Happier.” It’s built around hushed noise and rambling electronic voices spouting nonsensical mental health directives. Maybe it’s just an inside joke I don’t get, but it seems pretty lame. Ignoring this track, though, Blusom has a quiet, unassuming monster of a pop album on their hands, and I’m glad they realized it’s too good to keep to themselves.
Second Nature: http://www.secondnaturerecordings.com/
