Music Review // Blunda "Brighter Days"

https://blunda.bandcamp.com/album/brighter-days

The sound of Blunda can vary from song to song but "Brighter Days" just overall feels like a great piece of music to put on when you're going for a long drive.   These songs just have a way of moving which makes me feel like we're driving and staring out of the window as life passes us by.  This does open with an instrumental song, which sets the tone for the entire album, and it has the sound of synth drones and running water.  It makes me feel like if the classic video game "Pole Position" was being played with boats instead of cars.

Beats do kick into the first song, "Beginning", before the bass line really opens up.  This becomes dreamy yet somehow at the same time can feel like The Cure.   The second track, "Lost Without You", has vocals and as the songs which do have vocals tend to do this feels like something which you can eventually begin to sing along with.  Somewhere between The Weeknd and New Order, Blunda just takes on a Miami Vice type of driving synthwave sound that I really enjoy.   

Somehow the song "Belong to Me" has these fun electronics in it, which makes it feel upbeat on some level, yet at the same time it can be something in the genre of darkwave.   Many of these songs feel that way too where even within the song itself you can feel like parts are happier and other parts come out sadder.   It's an interesting contrast to have within a song, but Blunda finds a way to make it all work.   "Tape Pad" is instrumental, yet all heavily blissed out and dreamy.  "Open" reminds me of The Killers and that helps with the idea of being pop and dark at the same time.

With pianos and a haunting sound on "Bm", the final song- "Light On"- has a bit of an Elliott Smith feel to it.   This just makes me realize that whether the songs feel more upbeat like Capitol Cities where you can dance to them or darker like The Consolation Project, the one thing which all these songs has in common is the melodies.  There is always a melody and it's always going to put you into some mood and that's really how music should be.