ALBUM REVIEW: Big Love Blanket – Personal Trainer

Dutch seven-piece PERSONAL TRAINER have just put out their debut effort Big Love Blanket. Hailing from Amsterdam, the band is more or less a love letter from lead vocalist and self-described cheerleader, Willem Smit, who adored (and still adores) the music scene he grew up in, and takes influences from a range of genres from post-punk to art pop to indie pop. And the end result? Well, it’s rather difficult to put into words.

The opening title track serves as an intro that kicks things off with an acappella before slow music starts to play and other voices join in as one harmony. Then we get to The Lazer that uses a roughly-recorded guitar and the harmonies continue as we dive into an indie rock track that feels quite reminiscent of both the Britpop movement and the British indie scene. It’s all tied together of course with a bit of spoken word, making for an interesting start to the record to say the least.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what Big Love Blanket is trying to achieve or to explain what it takes influences from as it seems to be all over the place. One minute you think of GORILLAZ when it comes to tracks like Rug Bustlers and Former Puppy (also featuring but not limited to child-like voices, a harmonica and distorted voices) all the way to BILLIE EILISH‘s ilomilo with Vaalsverg Hero, which also features a Medieval style soundtrack that you would expect to find in a retro video game. It’s so weird, it’s so all over the place, you have no idea what the hell is going on… but you like it?

This record also includes some of the strangest combinations one could think of. Like we have grunge meets classical instruments in Key Of Ego, and then we have a mash-up of indie, electro and jazz in Texas In The Kitchen. But then other tracks remain loyal to your standard dark pop and indie-rock style songs.

So our opinion? Big Love Blanket is so all over the place that we don’t even know where to begin. But all we know is that we like it. To call it a bit of a strange album is an understatement; it is interesting but it’s hard to pinpoint what the goal of it is. It’s almost difficult to rate because you don’t know what the hell is going on but as we said, we like it. Just have a listen yourself and come to your own conclusion.

Rating: 7/10

Big Love Blanket is out now via The Industry.

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