I'd just about lost my patience with The Blow, after all I kept reading glowing review after review about how great they were, like some kind of synth poppers dream, it all sounded so job, but for me the records failed to deliver with the exception of Poor Aim: Love Songs a five or six track EP that shone as jewels alongside Tom and Girls (?) in The Blows paper crown. Just the mention that Tomlab were releasing the record though was enough to get me interested, a label fast becoming a guarantee for quality, look no further than The Books, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone and Final Fantasy (maybe don't look quite so closely at the new Les Georges Leningrad one.
As so here it is sat in my hands, glued to my stereo, soundtracking my cycle to and from work each day, helping me get ready to go out helping me to sleep, helping me to eat, in other words the peoples favourite, the safe bet, the Real Madrid of the music world should watch her pretty little step, here we have a serious contender for album of the year just when we thought there was no catching miss Newsom.
Each songs a glowing synth pop jewel, unlike Freezepop who, though they have their time and place, as I get older tend to grate occasionally, maybe a little too twee, instead the Blow give us perfect songs, songs that emit feeling and warmth "when your holding me/ we make a pair of parenthesis/ there's plenty of space to encase whatever ..." songs that'll make you want to dance but will also carry feeling, subjects you can relate to instead of clever puns about gameboys. And like a great album should, just when you think they've given you their best they end the album with the four best tracks, taking all the best bits from mainstream pop, mixing them with your favourite albums adding some riot girl in and then spewing out into your lucky lucky speakers. Eat Your Heart out exclaims, "what would people think if they saw me out with you!" "Pardon me but wasn't that your heart that I felt...I've felt a heart before and I'm learning what a heart is for/ I believe a heart is meant to feel the things laid in front of it" on Pardon Me, one of the most instantly loveable songs you'll hear this year. Fists Up continues, the sounds so instantly loveable, like Ladytron without the haircuts "I don't wanna come to the point of this song/ cos the point of this song would have to be so long". And then finally the most simple of bass lines, all rubbery ad bouncing like a bouncy ball down the street just fast enough for you to not be able to catch it, just like her, she's yours but not quite...not quite "I was out of your league/ and you were 20,000 under the sea/ waving affections/ you were out of my league at a distance that I didn't want to see/ wanted you nearer" so beautiful, so fun, so good, buy it!!
