You’ve got to hand it to a band like Blue Millenium: not many
\nbands would create music that can’t be easily pigeonholed and make
\nit so entertaining.<\/p>\n
Their disc
\nVintage Hi-Fi<\/i> is an interesting collection of what I could
\nonly term “pop” music that is certain to entertain the listener –
\nthough I would question just how radio would choose to program this
\ndisc. I mean, it’s not rock, it’s not jazz – it’s just light pop
\nwith a beat that you can get into and lyrics that occasionally make
\nyou think.<\/p>\n
This nine-piece band out of Austin, Texas mixes all the Memphis
\nsoul of a solid horn section with beats that have a bit of jazz
\nhidden in them, all laid on a lyrical bed that mixes as much
\ntraditional pop fare with
\nThe World Almanac<\/i> – with even an occasional pinch of reggae
\nthrown in for good measure. Sound scary? Don’t let it intimidate
\nyou; it’s actually quite pleasing to the ears.<\/p>\n
The leadoff track, “Ready For Radio,” isn’t the strongest way
\nfor the album to kick off, namely because Blue Millenium is exactly
\nthe kind of band who don’t neatly fit into any radio
\nclassification. (I guess that doesn’t mean the band couldn’t be
\nready for airplay; after all, their chops are flawless.) If this
\ntrack does anything, it helps to prepare the listener for a journey
\nunlike any they’ve ever taken musically.<\/p>\n
Blue Millenium shows often that they have brains behind the
\nbeat. “Cool Papa Bell” is probably the only song I’ve ever heard
\ndedicated to a star of Negro League baseball, tying his career into
\nthe image of modern-day kids playing stickball in the streets of
\nNew York. This track has a groove that will get you locked in from
\nthe beginning, and has proven to be a track I went back to often on
\nthis album just to enjoy listening to it.<\/p>\n
And let’s be honest, when was the last time you heard
\nDeath Of A Salesman<\/i> mentioned in a song lyric? Sure, the
\ntrack of the same name really doesn’t talk about the book past
\nmentioning it – though the melancholic existence of the song’s
\nsubject seems to have the same delusions of grandeur that Willy
\nLoman had in the play. Of course, I could be reading way too much
\ninto this, but unless someone from the band wishes to correct me,
\nI’ll stick to my interpretation.<\/p>\n
\nVintage Hi-Fi<\/i>‘s greatest success lies in the solid grooves
\nthat are anchored in very good songwriting. Tracks like “Little
\nSister,” “Jamaican Moon” and “Notch In Your Bed” all hook the
\nlistener from the start, and you almost feel sorry when the tracks
\ndo finally end. Without a doubt, Blue Millenium have mastered the
\nskill of writing pop-oriented songs; now all they have to do is
\nfind the right outlet.<\/p>\n
Closing the album is an 8-minute groove-based jam session,
\n“Compared To What”, which seems to fly by despite the length of the
\ntrack. The only thing I would have changed about this one was the
\nbrief reference to the song “Aquarius\/Let The Sunshine In” near the
\nstart; some of us have spent most of our lives trying to forget
\nsongs like that. Other than that, free up the funk, and let it
\nflow!<\/p>\n
\nVintage Hi-Fi<\/i> is the type of album that you might not give
\nconsideration to on first glance, but once you’ve listened to it,
\nyou’ll wonder how you went for so long without giving it a shot.
\nThis disc is hopefully just the first step towards serious success
\nfor the band; Lord knows they have the talent, both in songwriting
\nand execution, to make a name for themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7439],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39073","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-blue-millennium","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39073"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39073"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}