Friday, December 06, 2013

Band Review: The Black Sea


I believe if you enjoy Bruce Springsteen, you will enjoy The Black Sea.

It feels weird for me to say that. Although I have been gaining an appreciation for him lately, I'm not really a fan of the Boss. However, The Black Sea reminds me of him, and I nonetheless enjoy them.

It started with the first song I heard, "Now That We're Alone". It was a double punch. The music does some neat things with building and softening and is really well-constructed, so there is excitement, but there is also real poignancy from the lyrics, and it all works together.

I started noticing the resemblance to Springsteen later. There is a grittiness to the music, not only in the vocals, but also I think in the way the guitars are tuned. So there is that blue collar feel, though coming out of Leeds instead of New Jersey. There is still that feeling of being downtrodden, but not out.

Because of the reviews, I am always listening to at least two bands, which I like, but some weeks are more of a joy than others. This week was pretty good. I thought of giving them the Song of the Day today too, but I think it makes more sense to do that later.

Right now the band seems to be focusing more on getting gigs than on selling music. I have been doing my listening mostly via Soundcloud, which has five songs available. Check them out.




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