Bloom Parade: Love Songs | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- You could forgive a band for being a little gun-shy at this point. With socials full of gig posters from the last couple of years with CANCELLED painted across them in big red letters, it’s really hard to believe it when they promise we’re ‘past the peak’ - how many times can you be suckered into trying again? Still, like new buds opening to what might be another frosty, false Spring, here we go again. Releasing, -to little fanfare because at this point, c’mon- an EP that was ready to go a year ago, local indie outfit Bloom Parade are back at it, because sometimes Love Songs won’t be denied.

The new record, the band’s second EP, is an interesting mix: both emotionally tentative and at the same time exhibiting bold growth in the group. The six songs here are very much tugging on the heart-strings, existing, soulfully, somewhere between love and loss. Forgive my cynicism, but I guess it’s kind of economical to get both out of the way in the one record. This uncertain quality fits handily with frontman Mitchell Manz’ style of lyricism, which inhabits a strangely liminal state: a little bit impressionistic, a little bit surreal, capturing the overflowing sensation of an experience; every element of it, in the moment it occurred. Take for instance: “Our city shines from far away / I search for patterns and familiar shapes / I felt the leaves dry out and the shaking underneath / and long to mend the space between / but it won't be”. Even in its uncanny, soft focus, there’s a deep authenticity that you're getting this unfiltered, as it happened.

Bloom Parade are helping bring these fulsome emotions to life with some notable stylistic innovation, distinguishing their brand of indie from the rest of the pack. Well, most of the rest of the pack: it’s no bad thing, but it’s difficult not to think of Something For Kate when listening to Love Songs and, sure, this is moody indie, but Manz is really getting his Paul Dempsey on, establishing a more distinctive vocal style than I’ve heard from him before.

The whole sound is lusher, dreamier than back in that SfK’s heyday, which, well everyone’s dream-popping now, but Bloom Parade still manages to put a personal spin on it. Produced by Liam Kriz, the guitars are right up front, in a way that would very much be shoegaze, if it were more distorted. Every now and then it gets there, but more often Manz and co. borrow the ringing, bell-like tones of The Cure, a band they’ve long been influenced by. This is far from the twee goth-pop that most people associate with the likes of Robert Smith, however, and in a musical world where it’s increasingly difficult to sound original, Bloom Parade find a fusion that is their own. Oh, kudos to recent lineup addition Dayna Gilmore whose synth is hardly an afterthought, going toe-to-toe with the guitar power in some songs. Her backing vocals, also, are enchanting; maybe it’s just me but I’m reminded of Elizabeth Fraser - more of this please.

I’ve had enough emo indie music in my life already to last me all of the rest of it, but every now and then I discover there’s space for a little bit more. The complex colours of Bloom Parade have sucked me back in and I might not even feel self-conscious if you catch me listening to Love Songs.

- Chris Cobcroft.
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