Album Review: Blaire Alise & The Bombshells Are Pure Mod Rock In “My Eye”- THANK YOU!
In an era that enjoys fusions of genres and splashing together different, even contrasting beats, being pure of sound is now the new “fresh”. Amazing, how time works! While combining genres was once deemed ludicrous, now it seems crazy not to. Surf-punk, tropical-house, shoe-gaze, new wave, these are all, barely, the cusp of genre titles that artists struggle to fit and meet within its confines. Sometimes, artists are just artists, and, sometimes, they truly are the genre. Blaire Elise & The Bombshells ARE Mod Rock, from fashion to format, in their new album, My Eye.
In ten tracks/ thirty minutes, you will meet a 20 year old Detroit native that seems like she was born, raised, and taught by Andy Warhol in 1970’s Chelsea. Blair Alise’s style, in image and voice, matches Warhol’s world of colorful close-ups on human beings and the things they use to define themselves. With a voice that captures the sugared naivety of pop with the emotional maturity of soul, In songs, “Shady Lane”, “Little Lonely Eyes”, and “In Another Lifetime”, Alise grasps the youthful, 60’s perceptiveness/ boldness to declare when people were “out of touch”, Personally, I love that lyric/phrase, which Alise uses both in “Little Lonely Eyes”, and as one of My Eye’s virtuous themes. The record feels like a travel back in time to discover an issue that is timeless: how people step out of their connections with their relationships, society, and themselves. From missing fads to missing points, Alise declares in her beautiful, slightly anthemic track “You Are A Universe” that “You are a universe not far”, which, for me, connects to her other songs like, “Telemono” and “Back So Bony” , because Alise always sings to being on the cusp of “something.” I loved the lyrical and vocal distance she plays by always singing with a yearning; for either a boy to look at her or for her to look at herself. Thus, what fascinated me lyrically/ thematically about this album, is that Alise has captured the tension and temptation that both blocks and builds a person from discovering their best.
From your best relationship, “Hello” , to your need for escape, “Honey Dew”, Alise shows the rough and tumbled road of every human being’s “potential”, and does it with pure MOD ROCK. From the light drum tap and surfy guitar of “Find My Eye”, to the backing harmonies/ oooh’s and ahhh’s of “Rollieflex”, Blair Alise and The Bombshells, makes you miss a time that they were not even alive for. Moreover, they reveal that this era of a supposed “innocence” and “wholesomeness”, as cited from the 50 and above, was not so. In winding both her vocals and melodies in the same fashion as classic Mod Rock, you hear the eternal, human longing to feel “special” in relationships, to fight against your stupider, self-destructive desires, and, overall, become as “big as the universe”. I know that statement sounds vague “big as the universe”, but we all know what it means. We all want to be gods and kings while fighting the facts and feelings of being persons and laborers. How to make being ordinary feel extraordinary is a Millennial gripe, but Blair Alise reminds you that, apparently, our parents, in the 60’s/70’s, had the same issue. For More information on the glowingly youthful sounds of Blair Alise And The Bombshells and to buy My Eye Click Here.
