Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Playlists
    • Playlists
    • Dork Playlist
    • The Cut
    • Hype
      • Cover Story
      • Hype Playlist
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
HTML5 RADIO PLAYER PLUGIN WITH REAL VISUALIZER powered by Sodah Webdesign Dexheim
Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Playlists
    • Playlists
    • Dork Playlist
    • The Cut
    • Hype
      • Cover Story
      • Hype Playlist
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
  • Album & EP Reviews

Blossoms – Cool Like You

  • Dork
  • April 23, 2018
Label:
Released:
Rating:

Blossoms - Cool Like You

Much of the album’s power lies in the way that Blossoms harness nostalgia.

Label: Virgin EMI
Released: 27th April 2018
Rating: ★★★★

Blossoms fans, please breathe a sigh of relief. ‘Cool Like You’ is here, and it delivers everything one might want from a second album. Critically, there’s a healthy smattering of tracks that – at the bare minimum – equal the anthemic-might of earlier releases, such as ‘Charlemagne’ and ‘Honey Sweet’, that appeared on the band’s eponymous debut.

A single listen is all it takes for particular tracks on the new record to latch onto the subconscious. Even the most stubborn music fans will catch themselves murmuring the formidable chorus in ‘Giving Up The Ghost’ during a quiet moment. Who knows, you might even start welling up inexplicably to Tom Ogden lamenting, “I hate leaving the town that owns me…” on ‘Love Talk’, unearthing some unknown, deep-set emotional baggage that could probably do with some acknowledgement.

One thing’s for certain, much of the album’s power lies in the way that Blossoms harness nostalgia, both in their lyrics and the music itself. Synthesisers have been promoted to take a front-seat, with intros on many of the tracks wielding some ultra-spacey riffs, reminiscent of those 80s ballads your mum would have played too loudly in her room as a teenager, as she sat on her bed thinking about that boy she fancies (likely a ‘Mark’, or ‘Simon’). It’s all very Stranger Things, and everybody loves Stranger Things.

The album is as cathartic as it is nostalgic, and although its sentiments are mainly retrospective, even regretful, ‘Cool Like You’ manifests as a synth-clad ‘purge’. On the first listen, the lyrics and tonal influences suggest that the album is a mere token of the past. Yet on the second or third, it becomes clear that ‘Cool Like You’ exists as a very necessary expulsion, of sorts.

The album is a friendly gift, instructing its listeners on the way that acknowledging the past facilitates progression into the future. An auspicious sentiment, especially coming from a band on their second album – it can only be hoped that there’ll be several more. Lily Beckett

You May Also Like
View Post
  • Features

Louis Tomlinson’s ‘All Of Those Voices’ is a love letter to the people who made his career what it is today – review

  • March 27, 2023
View Post
  • Features

Fall Out Boy: “Going deep with people that care feels so much more important than going wide”

  • March 24, 2023
View Post
  • Music News

Bimini shares first music of 2023 with ‘Rodeo’

  • March 25, 2023
Latest issue
Latest
    • Music News
    Frightened Rabbit and Death Cab For Cutie are auctioning off a guitar for mental health charity Tiny Changes
    • Music News
    Coach Party, VLURE, HotWax, Mac Wetha and more have joined the line-up for The Great Escape 2023
    • Music News
    Sŵn Festival has confirmed its first wave of acts, feat. Jessica Winter, Lynks and more
    • Music News
    Jungle have shared a brand new track, ‘CANDLE FLAME’
    • Music News
    Tyler, The Creator is dropping an expanded edition of ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’ on Friday

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get pop nonsense to your inbox.

Dork
  • Contact
  • Jobs
  • Privacy
© 2016-2021 The Bunker Publishing Ltd

Input your search keywords and press Enter.