Blossoms - Foolish Loving Spaces 4/5
This is an odd choice for Blossoms, they gone from a bland festival pleaser band to 80's flavoured pop trinkets. Strangely it suits them much more than their previous dull rock incarnation.
Synths and jaunty rhythms inform a lot of the songs on this rather sunshine blasted album, it's a bit like necking a can of Lilt after drinking sugarless coffee for months.
Very upbeat and positive, singer Tom Ogden has thrown off the turgid indie rock template for a more pop focused sound and the results are a very summery sounding record. Songs like 'Romance, Eh' have a lightweight, breezy feel to them almost designed specifically for a cheery montage of a couple (heterosexual, of course) falling in love.
In fact 'Foolish Loving Spaces' sits happily next to the solid frothiness of the Monkees or The Partridge Family in terms of cheerfulness.
Both 'The Keeper' and 'If You Think This Is Real Life' are glistening and dare I say it, joyful? If there are negatives to be had with this album it could be that the record is almost relentlessly cheerful and upbeat, there's not a somber note on there. That said with so many artists mining their darkest corners for material it's refreshing to see a band like Blossoms confect a lighter, positive piece of work.
Who would've thought they had it in them?