If you are one of those people who like making up new generic categories for music, then you are going to have a field day with Barren Blue. For while it is easy to pick things apart and see what sonic strands make up Dying In The Material World, the result of this mixing and matching and merging and melding is far from easy to label. Shimmering power-pop? Abrasive indie? Understated, angular rock? Take your pick; they are all suitable, yet only a fraction of the story.
If opener “Algorithmic Deathbed Blues” sounds like Wilco Johnson providing guitar for an off-kilter, 90’s art-pop band – all grating, stacatto riffs drenched in wobbly synth lines, “Chemicals are Delicious” owes something to the McCartney piano ballad with an unexplained touch of ELO about it, a reminder that no matter how “out there” things get, underneath it all, these are essentially pop songs. With strange and humorous messages.
And to prove a point, “Barren Blue” itself sounds like something out of the C86 era, that pivotal moment when post-punk pop shed its past and truly got adventurous and tried to invade chartland in linear thinking sonic Trojan horses.
For every “Out of Style” and its blend of new wave and old-school rock, big guitars balanced with contagious grooves, there is an “Amazing Thing,” a 60s-soaked slice of psychedelic garage pop. The more I try to describe things, the less certain I get of anything going on here…which is great.
So, in conclusion…I don’t know what to tell you. The songs are great, addictive, enjoyable, groovy, and unique… God, are they unique. As for where they fit into the sonic landscape… well, to paraphrase Jaws, we are going to need a bigger musical map!
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