It’s been four years since the last Blues Pills album. It saw them shift from their psych-powered bluesy fare into something more straight-up 60s rock with hints of blues – Retro Pills, if you will. Since then, they’ve managed to get back out on the road to remind people what an absolute force they are and recorded another album – the latter venture taking place whilst singer Elin Larsson was pregnant as they’ve openly shown through their promotional images.
So, where are we with album four for the Swedes? Birthday has the quartet pick up right where they left off – full of old school swagger in the music and backed up with rich, warm production to trick you into thinking you’ve stumbled across a band from six decades ago who were lost to time. However, where they pick up, they continue along the same path and indeed, there’s not much blues to be found from a band whose sound was so foundational in it, they literally put it in the name.
It’s not quite chock-full of the big psych-infused blues belters like the first couple of albums, instead blues simply flavours the retro sounds to create an album which harkens back to a bygone era whilst bringing in a sense of originality. But what they’ve not lost a single ounce of is their ferocity and if anything, they’ve somehow managed to dial it up another notch, powered largely by Elin Larsson’s formidable vocals. She’s not indulging in vocal acrobatics like you’d hear on old school gems like “Devil Man” and “Little Sun”, instead focusing on the middle of her register but managing to sound better than ever as full-blooded roars laced with grit and venom drive the title track which opens the album.
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“Birthday” happens to be one of the few up-tempo numbers along with the foot-tapper that is “Don’t You Love It” and the sultry “Bad Choices”. It’s the latter where blues fully overpowers the retro vibe, the guitar work sounds like it could have been pulled straight from a dirty bar in Chicago as the explosive solo kicks the song up a notch. It’s in the trio of songs at the mid-point of the album where the band truly embrace their newfound direction and while the songs are great and performed by a more than competent band, it does leave me wanting for those older albums. “Piggyback Ride” slithers and boogies with its chunky melody, vocal effects thrown in like a teenager using whatever Instagram filter they like this hour and a fat bassline. “Holding Me Back” is more of a bouncy number and as much as I loathe this term – it’s a Summer song. Fuelled by its bright melody and Larsson’s Devil-may-care delivery on her vocals. Somebody better drops the tempo slightly in favour of a darker tone but it’s still upbeat enough when it launches into the stomping chorus. It’s these three songs where they truly channel the likes of Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane for their throwback sound.
Whilst there’s plenty of high-octane moments to be swept along by, it’s in the sombre numbers where the album truly shines. There’s a maturity and contemplativeness to them with big, textured melodies, not simply stripping it back to make a ballad or two. Those are still present, namely in the saccharine and dreamy “Top of the Sky” and the acoustic twangs of “Like a Drug” which almost strays into Southern rock. Neither of them are sadly particularly memorable and if you want something to truly stir you by Blues Pills, go check out “I Felt a Change”. Indeed, it’s the final three songs of the album which become the high point with the fuzzy “Shadows” leading the beginning of the end. It’s swampy and whilst there’s still a bit of force to the song, it’s not the most hard-charging on the album, signalling the wind-down which is set to take place with the final two songs.
“Back on that Horse Again” and “What Has This Life Done to You” are two sides of the same coin. Where the former is very much blues in its subject matter, it’s very inward-looking, the protagonist ready to accept to defeat in what they face. But there’s a sense of power in the blustering guitar solo, vacillating between the peace that comes from walking away and the defiance in saying “One last try”. Meanwhile, the latter drips with empathy in its warm, waltzing melody. Its bright tones and Larsson’s sugar-sweet vocals act as a hand outstretched to a person from the past as an act of forgiveness, acknowledging their paths have diverged but offering the chance to reconnect, wanting to know what has happened in their life whilst telling them redemption is always there.
Birthday isn’t a bad album but it’s not what I want from Blues Pills when I listen to them. But those first two albums are still there and aren’t going anywhere so I can continue to enjoy them. Their full transformation into a retro/garage rock band is now complete with this record – they’ve now just hit that stage of their career when you can say you prefer the older or the newer material.
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Header image by Dana Triple
Birthday is released on 2nd August
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