As the press release explains, to all intents and purposes, BL_NK SP_C_S is a one man band. Ok, many bands are in fact one person: Nine Inch Nails is (was) Tent Reznor, Juffage is Jeff T. Smith. Etc. That’s no excuse for this.
The electropop backing is so-so, largely unremarkable and awkwardly dated. The first song, ‘A Parting Gift’ starts off reasonably enough, a jaunty verse and bouncy chorus, a cleanish guitar nagging away in the background as an accessible melody skips over it.. but then the synths sound so cheap (without postmodern, ironic or trashy) and then comes the Brian may style guitar solo toward the end and everything begins to descend into shit.
It sounds like this guy raided Nick Kershaw and Phil Oakey’s house clearances some time around 1988 and sat in a room listening to Haircut 100 and Orange Juice for a decade years wondering why he didn’t have any mates and clueless as to the fact the world was moving on apace.
That this isn’t the way the story goes - BL_NK SP_C_S only began making music a year or so back. But it doesn’t make the album any more palatable. Sure, it has some nice ideas and the compositions are all solid enough, but as a whole ‘Memory Man’ is awkward, self-conscious and limp. ‘No Sleep’ comes like an indie-electro Muse and every bit as smug. Even the surging pop chorus of ‘Start!’ can’t salvage it when ‘The Great Shark Hunt’ breezes in ripping off every generic 80s band whose names you can’t remember and Midge Ure. In the main, it’s not so much the songs in themselves, but the execution. There’s an overwhelming whiff of cheese about it.
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Even the most accomplished memory man would find this rather woeful effort forgettable.
BL_NK SP_C_S Online
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