Sky-Rocket 2025
Drowning in sorrow but hiding a smile, world’s preeminent steampunk duplet fathom the scope of heaven and strike the surface of down-to-earth sentiments.
Big Blue Sky
Up until fairly recently one could safely assume that Doris Brendel’s favorite hue was violet and Lee Dunham’s black, yet their friendship – and it’s important, for understanding the duo’s creative dynamic, to know they’re a pair but not a couple – proved to be able to produce any color you like, as some other pig-flying and spectrum-flaunting collective used to say, and do so in style. Or in styles – because the two Brits easily excel in any genre – and currently their music’s tone is what the album’s title and cover state, with their coterie comprised of Sam Blue on vocals, Sam White on drums, Sam Brown on organ and Sam Black on triangle, the fictitiousness of the last artist compensated for with the fame of the penultimate one. As J. R. R. Tolkien suggested, Sams are best supporters of main characters who shine ever bright, and this is how Lee and Doris fare here, projecting a light of slyly subdued adventure.
Immersing the listener into a slightly histrionic misery with hypnotic opener “Long Long Time” that may lure even the faint-hearted towards a barroom psyche-searching without displaying a twelve-bar structure until the final call-and-response, Brendel and Dunham demonstrate their desire to break away from the confines of traditional approach while remaining faithful to the form. This is why the intensely sincere “Cold Coffee Blues” gets relocated to a more contemporary type of eatery and the countrified “Slow Wifi Weekend” finds, offset by Doris’ husky voice and Lee’s exquisite acoustic lace, other funny aspects in the first-world problems. However, if the gorgeously flowing “I Should Have Known” and “Red Letter Blues” lull the audience into a deeply felt, albeit loosely woven, drama, where flamenco-tinctured passages pull emotional strings to a great effect, “Is This The Last Time” focuses on sublime, faux-orchestral balladry and the singers’ inspired performances.
But if the scintillating “Satin Row” exudes sweet swagger, the finely textured “Hold On” rides a heavy riff – unlike the effervescent “Under The Covers” which, helped by rippling piano and shimmering Hammond, embraces seductive soul. And then there are infectious “What Has Happened To My Dog” and the record’s swamp-scented title track that bring it all to a sweaty close to show the eternal glory of blues. A gripping experience.
*****
