Album Review: Alex Bloom’s Blue Room Would Make Elliot Smith A Fan

Alex Bloom’s Blue Room is like a final dance with Elliot Smith. Bloom continues his idol’s legacy by delivering music reflective of human moodiness. How we emotionally rise and crash within milliseconds has often confounded me. We have all fallen victim to a mood change, whether it was from someone else or ourselves. Thus, Blue Room is Alex’s attempt to ask…. What happened?

No song is a straight-track. If anything, Bloom’s soundscape can be considered for cross-country; breaking, suddenly, into a new, forested path for you to run and figure out your way. “Something”, “Change Your Mind”, and “One More Shot” captures the pleading nature of our moods. Whether it be depression or delusion, when our moods take over, it is plea to either escape from boredom or never fall into it again. The point is we are seeking excitement, and Bloom’s radiates this basic, human plea in a way that would make Elliot Smith his fan. There is a somberness that cannot be shanked no matter how vibrantly arranges his acoustics. No enrapturing melody as in, “One For Me” and “It’s Alright”, could deplete the sadder undercurrents that impress upon his music like dents to a car; while his voice drives his relationships seem to scratch him. Yet, you listen enthralled because, again, this man echoes Elliot Smith at his finest.

From “I Don’t Know You Anymore” to “Sunrise”, there is magic misery to Alex Bloom’s music that puffs within your ears like fairy-dust. He layers his vocals so as to be his own chorus and harmonizer, which only amps his songs bouts with loneliness. Yet, ironically, it his lyrical discussion of loneliness that makes his songs so dreamy. Maybe, there is some truth to this effect. It is when humans are lonely or moody that they fantasize about relationships and fun to an almost hallucinatory state. Our longings often amp our visions’ worth, and Alex Bloom has plenty of vision in his record, Bloom. For More Information On Alex Bloom Click Here.