Context – attempting to finish my assistant’s performance review

If you’re keeping score at home, PR 2 : JR 0.  I’ll get there one day!

I’m not done talking about “Cherry” so I listened to Moose Blood’s sophomore album, Blush, as a vehicle to further discuss this track.

I was talking about how devastating I found the song “Cherry” with my wife and she made the incredible comment that “Cherry” feels a lot like Brand New’s “Soco Amaretto Lime”, and we both agree that the same kids who wanted to stay 18 forever are now the broken-hearted, misguided young fathers in “Cherry”.  Mind. Blown.  I think I could draw other parallels if I tried, but I’m tired so I’m not going to try very hard.  Also as my favorite band, Brand New has no comparisons.  I hereby declare them wholly unique and beyond comparison.

Also, after learning a few more of the lyrics to “Cherry” I have no idea if the heartbreak is directed towards his kid (step-kid? if the “she’s not mine…” lines are directed at her?) or his fiance (as I previously assumed).  Either reading is still devastating, but the possibilities have expanded.

More specifically to Blush, all I can say is it’s a fine album.  It has a lot more pop influence than their previous album, and as such it seems like a lot of the… urgency (for lack of a better word) is gone.  Whenever these bands start leaning into the pop-rock elements inherent to the genre it feels like they’re phoning it in.  Blush is fine, but if I return to Moose Blood it will be to I’ll Keep You In Mind, From Time to Time.

It’s just that there were no surprises on this album–nothing jumped out to grab my attention and everything felt kind of same-y.  Few variations in tone or tempo, few variations in song-writing structure, nothing particularly heart-wrenching.  Hashtag shrug.

Emo Spring is still awesome, though.  So more on awesome emo bands  in the forever to follow.