If I remember correctly, I wrote most of this whilst on the way home from Newcastle.
I was on my way home after being in Newcastle to review a gig the night prior.
I don’t know as to what bearing that has on anything.
I’ve fixed some spelling mistakes as well as some of the paragraphs, but otherwise this is as it was when it went up on Cool Try.
A friend and I are working on growing Culture Eater so we can have more things covered whilst taking the pressure of continually putting out content off of ourselves. Hence our going onto Patreon.
We’re looking at what we can give to supporters as we don’t want to set up a one way relationship, so suggestions are welcome.Please consider supporting, or at least sharing the Patreon page with others.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
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It was only recently that RÜFÜS released their second full-length which has recently passed Adele in the charts. This is probably cause for celebration for some people as it overtly shows there is still strong interest in Australian music.
However, is this an indicator that Bloom puts on a display, or is it going to wilt before it has the chance?
A lot of the music is stripped back and minimal. Rather than throw as much as possible at the listener, the group have given breathing space not only to the music, but to the listener as well.
The songs all follow a very formulaic 4/4 structure and fairly consistent tempo, not varying much outside of occasionally introducing a different sound into whichever song is playing. However, being that they sound as though they were most likely designed to fill a dance floor rather than be put on just to listen to, this is somewhat okay. It also means the album can end up being a bit dull to listen to at times. Still, the melodies are pleasant enough for a while and it does sound pretty fun at times.
The vocals are mixed louder than everything else, which works for the songs on this album, but doesn’t really give much opportunity for the instrumentation to stand out on it’s own. The Lyrics are sung in a manner that would suggest softness and vulnerability. This would normally work well, but due to the vocalist seemingly lacking confidence in his ability to deliver, the effect is dulled. However, had they been sung with a lot of power and passion, they would have detracted far too much. Perhaps a middle-ground would have served the songs a bit better, but then that would have run the risk of reducing the room to breathe that the pared-back arrangements have.
Despite what I’ve said, RÜFÜS have made an album of somewhat enjoyable pop music that should be listened to.
It could have been much, much better though.
It seems as though they went “Here’s a 4/4 template. Here’s where everything should come in. Alright, let’s go”.
Okay, I’ll concede that that’s a bit harsh, but the album is highly repetitive and formulaic, leading to diminishing returns as the album goes on.
There’s nothing wrong with sameness between songs; it can work quite well.
However, it seems as though the group were more willing to rest on their laurels, as it’s clear that they can write excellent songs.
Having a closer that is somewhat minimalistic, doesn’t do much at all, lacks real punch in the drums, has odd faux sad vocals over a melody that runs for somewhere around ten minutes and somehow instead of it being boring, dull, or annoying to listen to, turns out to be an excellent slice of music that makes good use of an “airy” atmosphere and nothing in it feeling out of place (sans the entirely pointless old vinyl sample) is proof of that. It’s just that a lot of the rest of it seems to have been the group resting on their laurels a bit more than they should have.
Bloom isn’t necessarily bad; it can be pretty fun at times, which is a shame as it due to its design, it doesn’t seem like the kind of album that will last.
Stupidity Hole 