Singer-songwriters Kurt Neumann and Sammy Llanas formed the BoDeans in high school 27 years ago.\u00a0 I doubt many of their devoted fans picked up their new disc Indigo Dreams<\/i> thinking it might be the group\u2019s swan song\u2014and indeed, it isn\u2019t, but only because Neumann has announced he will forge on under the BoDeans banner without Llanas, who abruptly walked away a couple of weeks ago in the midst of the group\u2019s current tour.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Associated drama aside, Indigo Dreams<\/i> is a fine way to finish off an era.\u00a0 Kicky opener \u201cBlowin\u2019 My Mind\u201d is a classic BoDeans anthem\u2014sneaky-smart observations lurking inside a foot-stomping bar-band sing-along.\u00a0 The title track takes a completely different path to tug at the listener\u2019s heart and mind, digging into the trials of mid-life with typical fearlessness: \u201cNo one ever dreams of being old \/ Everyone sees their indigo dreams painted gold.\u201d \u00a0Lyrical and gorgeous, nostalgic and resolved, it\u2019s a bullseye on a target Bruce Springsteen has been shooting at for the past twenty years.<\/p>\n
From there, the kaleidoscope of tones and approaches continues to unfold around the same basic theme; these are songs of determination and persistence at middle age, songs about trying to make things happen and make things last.\u00a0 \u201cRight Now\u201d is a spooky, philosophical bit about living in the present; \u201cHow Can We\u201d is an expansive \u201csteady on to the horizon\u201d number whose narrator declares he \u201cNever gave up on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWay Down\u201d is this album\u2019s requisite \u201ccelebration of sex\u201d track (a BoDeans staple), loud, proud and harking back to memorable tracks gone by such as \u201cGo Slow Down\u201d and \u201cFeed The Fire.\u201d\u00a0 Nostalgia is the very core of \u201cSad Eyes,\u201d a stream-of-consciousness reminiscence sprinkled with old song lyrics that raise the ghosts of memories and emotions again and again for the narrator.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
And then \u201cWrap Me\u201d busts things wide open again with the kind of big-boned, expansive rocker that broke the guys loose from the pack when \u201cCloser To Free\u201d made the airwaves back in the mid-\u201990s.\u00a0 The verses are somewhat restrained, building tension to allow the song to explode outward at the chorus.\u00a0 And then the spacious, mid-tempo \u201cMe Again\u201d comes along and reminds us all that the gift that these guys gave us by staying together as a duo all those years was the counterpoint between their voices, one in the foreground, one in the background, first echoing, then harmonizing, always complementing each other beautifully.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Damn it.<\/p>\n
The final third of the album is very strong.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t Wanna Go\u201d adds mariachi horns for a little Latin flavor, setting up \u201cRock and Roll Overdrive,\u201d a raging screed against the music business and the seamy side of rock and roll success, driven by a fat, gritty riff.\u00a0 The delicate, pretty interlude \u201cFather\u2019s Day\u201d calms things down again, prepping you for the full-blast garage-pop confection \u201cPut Your Money Where Your Mouth Is,\u201d full of greasy guitar lines and doo-doo-doo-doo-doot choruses.\u00a0 (It\u2019s actually a very serious song about the need to pay for the wars we start: \u201cPut your money where your mouth is \/ So you\u2019re not just speaking crazy.\u201d)\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The disc closes with \u201cMercy,\u201d a deadly serious meditation on mortality and spirituality, set to reverbed guitar and subtle synth accents that pulse along underneath until the narrator reaches the end of his deathbed contemplation, and the music fades, and the heartbeat ends.\u00a0 Pow, right in the gut.<\/p>\n
Indigo Dreams<\/i> is an excellent disc that ensures the Llanas-Neumann partnership\u2014or at least this phase of it\u2014will go out on a high note.\u00a0 With intelligence, melodic drive, and musical craftsmanship to spare, it’s a fitting milestone from a band that\u2019s now suddenly entering unexplored territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5778],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-42412","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bodeans","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42412","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42412"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42412"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}