Music Review // The Burning Balloons "THIS IS OUR FUTURE" (Philatelia Records / Sir Gregory Records)

https://theburningballoons.bandcamp.com/album/this-is-our-future //

When listening to the music of The Burning Balloons, I come to realize that this is a sound which not only can be traced back as far as I can remember in rock music but one which just does not seem to fade away even in the present.   With distorted guitar riffs and that slow burn, I'm immediately taken to this place of classic rock, along the lines of CCR, and it's the type of rebellion you would hear in some film about the Vietnam War.   It has that place in history as being music from that era but also about those events.

As I continue to listen though, I think more about artists coming after that and up until the modern day such as Velvet Underground, White Stripes, Soul Asylum and The Damn Personals.  A song such as "On the run" can showcase the sense of how powerful this rock music can be overall.  Whether slowly drawn out or faster paced, like "Drained" (which reminds me of a band such as The Hives) this sound always remains fuzzy and trippy.   "Heart of Gold" makes me think of the space-trippy David Bowie while "Kill them with kindness" has a certain level of Stone Temple Pilots trippy about it.

This compact disc comes with a comic book which both tells a story about rock n roll but also serves as the lyrics booklet for the album.   The serious, straight forward style of the artwork can remind me of Harvey Pekar as much as it could the old style of superheroes.  As a pre-teen, I remember sneaking into my uncle's bedroom and finding his collection of comic books.  my first real exposure to them, and he had the genre of the military, such as Sgt. Rock, which I am reminded of here both in the music and comic book presentation.

Depending upon your age you might take a different influence in this album (If you're younger, you might not hear the older artists)  For some reason this album also makes me think of Hunter S. Thompson, which is never a bad thing.   For as long as there has been rock music there has been this trippy, psychedelic genre which The Burning Balloons just seem to perfectly capture here.   Whether this is your first time or you've been listening to music like this since the dawn of vinyl, this is an album not to be missed.