Music has always been about the art of painting intricate frescoes in one’s mind with just the power of sound. There is a certain intimacy with dramatic, cinematic music that is quite inexplicable without, by way of example, and “Grace & Gravity” by BlackieBlueBird is the kind of example I would use.
BlackieBlueBird consists of vocalist Heidi Lindahl and composer Nils Lassen, who collaborate to craft ethereal torch songs filled with haunting reverb and echoes. Their music enchants the audience with the rich tones of guitars, lap steels, mandolins, and a choir of mermaids that intermittently envelops Heidi’s enchanting voice. Within her distinctive and crystalline vibrato, one can hear the echoes of love, yearning, greetings, and bittersweet farewells. Keep reading for my thoughts!
Grace & Gravity starts out with “The Morning After”, immediately settling a pall of delectable melancholy into one’s mind, with the heavy melodic base of the song setting the tone for the album to wrap itself around. Space and expanse dominate the song, with drama flowing from every second of this song—the lamentation in her voice is the icing on the cake. The phased and plucked electric guitars add a very Lana Del Rey-esque sound to the production, making this song dwell firmly in the realm of shoegaze, making the perfect segue to the next song, “Mesmerized.”. This second song is a pleasant twist in tone from the first song, with a significantly more upbeat sound—a happier sound that I quite appreciated—while still retaining the melodramatic tone very strongly.
“The Love We Once Knew” introduces some technical complexity while still retaining the base solidly built up by the two songs preceding, with decidedly more going on in the percussion department and more layering in the harmonies that lend it a more grandiose sound, a slight evolution from the simplistic theme of the previous. As we head into “Mamachild”, we transition almost completely into a shoegaze-soft rock sound, with an almost haunting quality, as I wonder what other surprises this album has in store for me.
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The middle of the album is marked by “I Can’t Stop Drinking About You”, the title very suggestive of the theme of the song, an oft-visited one, I would say, in this genre, and one that we have already been made comfortable with over the course of the last four songs. At this point, I will take a step back and comment on the production of the album thus far, which is easily said as consistent, theme-enriching, and very artsy and innovative. There is great use of the instrument ensemble with the guitars, the drums, and all the other trinkets and embellishments that end up in lockstep with the main instruments to yield something quite special.
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Some special mentions on the album include the closer, “Snowwhite Swan”, and “Oh Susanna”, that are great songs in their own right, and propel the album to an easy daily-listen for me this week. The vocals throughout the album remain delicate yet powerful, with great dynamics and modulation, and overall, great chemistry between the instruments and the voices, which is something I quite appreciated. Check out the album “Grace & Gravity” here!
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