Written by: Craig Bailey
Band:
Album Title:
Release Date:
Blue Nation
Ordinary People
13th September 2024
After the first couple of listens through of Ordinary People it is clear that this is a brilliantly balanced album of the very best modern soul and blues tinged rock, where the tempo of the tracks ebb and flow and the emotions elicited lift you up and bring you back down in a beautiful way. This overall crafting is a further example of how Blue Nation as a band have grown and matured considerably, since their 2018 album The Kaftan Society, under the guidance of producer Trevor Gibson and their very astute management.
Opening track Hand Me Down immediately showcases all of the incredible talent within the band. Neil’s guitar sound has become a real signature along with the crunching heavy blues riff that fires up this song. His vocals rasp and growl, whilst Luke’s bass lines run and flow underneath like honey.
Have you ever wondered what kind of song may have been crafted if Steve Marriott and George Harrison had sat down in a studio together? Every Single Time could have been that track with its Beatles-esque rhythm and vibe along with wondrous rising and falling melodies and gorgeous vocal harmonies between Luke and Neil.
There is a sense of reflection running through the album. Time Is A Thief is a smart and wry observation of how the passage of time is inexorable and is carried on huge sing out loud chorus. Old Friends is almost symphonic in how it tells of how those nearest to us pull us through the best and worst of what we experience. Once In My Life swims along on a gorgeous chiming riff and melody giving a sweet sense of ’70s infused ’90s indie rock.
The middle of the album is where you find two of the best songs to have been written by any band in the past few years. Even two years after its original release Echoes still carries the power to stop you in your tracks and have huge emotions swell up within you. Neil’s emotive vocals soar through the song and Luke’s backing vocals and bass are the perfect counterpoint. It is on this track that the drumming on the album is shown at its best. It moves seamlessly from soft and sympathetic, just an accompaniment, to then the driving force of the song when required. Along with the vocal harmonies it all comes together to make Echoes a timeless classic.
The Reason is the song that distills all the very best ingredients of Blue Nation songs into one perfect spirit. Through the almost four-minute journey of the song there is the soft acoustic opening with soulful vocal harmonies which slowly builds into thunderous riffs with the vocals stretching and verging on spitting anger. All throughout, Luke’s virtuoso bass playing provides the song’s depth and character. This song, just like all the others on the album, show there are few better songwriting partnerships around today than Luke and Neil.
The final three tracks are the new friends I spoke of and they certainly bring plenty to the party.
Ordinary People fits perfectly with the Lowry inspired album cover. It feels like a song celebrating the strength of us all as a collective and shows Neil has a rare talent of constructing the smoothest of bluesy grooves.
The penultimate song is an absolute gem. Run Straight Ahead has a joyous ’60s jangling guitar which runs into Crosby Stills & Nash vocal harmony territory with Luke providing some sumptuous sitar flourishes.
The album closes out with just Neil and his acoustic guitar on Worry with his voice carrying a plaintive refrain as he calls out “…please save me from my nightmare so I can return to my dream.”
If you have been smart enough to see Blue Nation live over the past couple of years you will listen to Ordinary People with a huge smile on your face as you recall the completely random but hugely entertaining banter from the stage along with the stunningly performed songs.
As Neil asks from the stage “Are we doing alright for you?”…I can assure you mate, you most certainly are!! I cannot recall an album where I have found myself randomly singing various songs lyrics in my head in the days after listening to it. It is like the whole album is an earworm.
I will leave the last word to my partner Trudy who summed Ordinary People up perfectly. “There is absolutely no deadwood on this album. There is not a single track I would want to skip over.”
Blue Nation are:
Neil Murdoch – Vocals / Guitar
Luke Weston – Bass Guitar
Oli Jefferson – Drums
Nick Sharman – Drums
Track Listing
- Hand Me Down
- Every Single Time
- I Feel Low
- Time Is A Thief
- Strangers
- Old Friends
- Echoes
- The Reason
- Once In My Life
- Come Back Home
- Ordinary People
- Run Straight Ahead
- Worry