EP REVIEW: Life’s A Blur – Superbloom
A superbloom is a rare phenomenon. Mostly seen in California and Arizona, it refers to deserts of wild flowers that all bloom at roughly the same time. The result is gorgeous riot of colour that you can’t take your eyes off of. As for the Brooklyn-based rock band of the same name, their riot of colour is not only seen in the artwork for their music, but also in the passion that they have for their craft. Having formed in 2018 out of a passion for music, SUPERBLOOM released their debut EP Level Head in 2020, with their debut album following in 2021. Now they are back with their new EP Life’s A Blur.
The first song is an introduction, which while an interesting listen as it experiments with some electronica sounds, doesn’t really bring much to the table as these sounds are continued throughout the 42-second runtime. Thankfully, just as it’s about to get tedious, the song smoothly transitions into Pig. The grunge-esque track is strongly reminiscent of NIRVANA, although that is also a little bit of an issue. Whilst NIRVANA are clearly an influential band, it doesn’t really help SUPERBLOOM carve out their own identity. Furthermore, the production on the song means that the instruments overwhelm the vocals, making them hard to hear.
There is also the strange use of interludes scattered throughout the EP. Whilst interludes might work on longer bodies of work, this EP is only just over 20 minutes long, and therefore it feels like precious time is being wasted on interludes that could have been used to make more fleshed-out songs. Some people might argue that they break the EP up into neat little chapters, and therefore have some sort of a running musical narrative throughout, which gives it a bit of structure, but others will find them completely unnecessary.
Head First thankfully moves away from the grunge influences and it sounds like SUPERBLOOM have found themselves a bit more. This is a good thing, because when they embrace their own sound, they are very talented. The vocals from singer/guitarist Dave Hoon are nothing new, however, for their style of mid-tempo rock, it suits them really well. This could also be because the producer has realised that the vocals actually need to be heard over the instruments. The title track is a gentle acoustic song with some synths thrown in. Whilst the acoustics are nice, the synths do take over, and unfortunately overwhelm the rest of the song. It makes us wonder why they were included in the first place because – in the end – they become rather tedious because it is all that can be heard.
The latter half of the EP goes from rock with some distorted sounds thrown in (Daisy), to another synth-infused interlude (Paradise), to a run-of-the-mill rock song (Tiny Bodyguard), and an Outro, which is another electronic piece but this time with soundbites in it. If that sounds a bit messy, that’s because it is. It is a shame, because the EP has potential, it’s just never realised. The pacing of the EP starts off well at first, but as the latter half of the EP becomes cluttered and messy, the pacing is all over the place.
Overall, Life’s A Blur is a mixed EP. At first it seems to try its hardest to be a NIRVANA tribute, then the band try to do their own thing. Unfortunately, they then descend into a peculiar mashup of synths and rock. This can work sometimes, but for some reason it doesn’t here. The production is not helpful, as the instruments overwhelm the vocals in quite a few songs. The pacing is also all over the place, leaving the EP sounding cluttered. The band do have talent, and – whilst the rockier side of their sound isn’t anything new – it is at least consistent. If SUPERBLOOM had continued in this direction, then it could have worked. But, sadly, this is one EP that does not bloom into full colour.
Rating: 6/10
Life’s A Blur is out now via self-release.
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