Past Lives

All the former Blood Brothers who didn’t morph into jaguars to flirt with the pop world have regrouped, along with original BB guitarist Devin Welch, to explore their Past Lives. For anyone who dug the Blood Brothers’ manic, angular progressive art punk but couldn’t get past Johnny Whitney’s helium weasel yelp, this may be the album for you. Jordan Blilie has nailed down his vocal comfort zone, belting and crooning with enough colourful swaggering inflection and clever lyricism to forgive the limited octaves of his pipes. Musically, Strange Symmetry hits it out of the park, sounding like a natural enough progression from Young Machetes to satisfy still sobbing BB fanatics while introducing enough fresh perspective on instrumentation and melodic impetus to establish Past Lives as a distinct entity. One listen to the shuffling tribal beats and delightfully unexpected Tom Waits-ish marimba part in EP opener "Beyond Gone” is plenty evidence that nobody in this group is interested in reliving their own experiences.