Whenever
I prepare to review any music, I am generally looking for an angle. I’m looking for a story I can tell to help
readers relate to the album so as to identify with it the same way that I
do. In many instances, this becomes a
chore and I am struggling to find ways to spew out several paragraphs about any
given review.
This
has never been a problem with Blue October, however, because if anything I’ve
only ever had to try and restrict what I write about them so as not to become a
rambling mess of pages no one wants to read after the first few.
Anyone
who knows me musically knows that I am a fan of Blue October and if not for
their band (and a few others) I’d probably be dead right now because many of
their songs are therapeutic for me. So
one of the important factors to consider when listening to “Sway” is how it
compares to their previous albums.
Lyrically
and just for the overall mood, “Sway” seems to pick up where “Approaching
Normal” left off, which would be sort of given if not for that album in between
the two called “Any Man in America”.
This leads to a lot of speculation on my part that perhaps this album
would have come next had there been no relapse, but that’s another story for
another time.
While “Approaching
Normal” had the few songs that were heavier on the depressive side, “Sway”
seems to not have any of that. There is no open book confessional song like “HRSA”
or an audio clip from a voice mail. This is a fairly normal album from Blue
October that channels The Police, various other rock bands and, well, Blue
October themselves.
My
biggest question after first listening to “Sway” was whether or not Blue
October could make good music that wasn’t self destructive and had a theme of
some sort like their previous albums.
After listening to this a lot though (And I mean *a lot*), I have
realized that Blue October can be perhaps an even greater band without all of
the drama.
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