Album Review: Blossoms – Gary
3 min read
Indie rock band Blossoms have never shied away from unusual concepts. Indeed their most famous song Charlemagne compares their lover to an Emperor from the very early 800th century. With their fourth studio album, Gary, the Blossoms mesh a retro sound and a seventies inspires aesthetic with the tale of a very usual theft.
The central narrative of the album revolves around the theft of an “eight-foot-tall” fibreglass ape (the titular Gary) from a garden centre. The story unfolds across the music videos for What Can I Say After I’m Sorry and Gary, with Rick Astley, a previous Blossoms collaborator, starring as the bereaved manager. The track itself, Gary, is a whimsical number that narrates the theft, a true story discovered by a Blossoms member Tom Ogden while browsing the news. The lyrics borrow heavily from the news article incorporating its faux-serious language. The light guitar and piano are overlayed on the drumline from Frank Oceans Lost lending it a slight R&B sound. The light-hearted song is a fun listen with an infectious chorus where the Blossoms implore you to “keep an eye out for Gary”.
The seventies-inspired aesthetic that accompanies the album is also evident in the sound with many songs taking on a vintage sound. What can I say after I’m sorry, had a disco-inspired sound and synth effects that accompany rambly vocals and high echoey production. In I Like Your Look the Blossoms give an ode to seventies fashion singing about wearing “flares” and “hand me downs”. The talk-singing style of the verses works well with the catchy rhyme scheme as they sing “It’s Tuesday and I’m head to toe in Gucci”. The more romantic Cinnamon is a love song about a “new wave mad girl” who calls herself “Cinnamon”. The lyrics lean into the playful tone of Gary, with a cheerful guitar line.
Amongst the more cheerful songs, the Blossoms do take a turn into more personal topics. The desperate-sounding Why do I give you the worst of me, explores a failing relationship with the singer utilising gravelly vocals as he wishes he could go “back to the start”. The chorus builds with the vocals reaching an album-high with heartbreaking intensity. A more surprising sad track is Mothers where the singer looks back on his mother’s life “before [she] had [her] babies”. The nostalgic tone is vaguely reminiscent of Pulps Disco 2000 as the song brims with 90s nostalgia. There is a melancholy tone and a sense of loss as he sings “Time will come for us all”.
With Gary, the blossoms take on a new sound and create a memorable, whimsical, and surprisingly heartfelt album. They take a risk with their newer visuals and the more unusual subject matter pays off giving them some of their most interesting tracks yet. While a fibreglass ape may seem an odd choice as an album muse, and indeed as a member of an indie rock band, a glance at the band’s updated line-up shows that Gary like the Blossoms is here to stay.
