Just as Niagara alt-rock trio James Blonde has three members, so too does their sophomore studio album Chameleon have three sides to it — the glitzy '80s pop, the in-your-face hard rock and the breezy soft rock.
Opener "Back to Life" introduces the project with a techno-glazed hook delivering shades of the former, while follow-up "Say What You Want" smacks you in the face by way of a crushing instrumental and furious vocals. "You Don't Even Know" draws you gently back with a buoyant melody worthy of B.C.'s finest surf towns.
And, although I'm no surfer (landlocked as I am), those are the songs on Chameleon that I continue to circle back to in the weeks following its release. They even firm up toward the end of the project, when the fluttering, wordless tones of "Remember Me" bleed seamlessly into the charming storytelling on "It Don't Take Much" before "So Long" bids the listener a vulnerable adieu.
"I'm afraid of everything that I've come not to know / Like calling every shot now, on my own / Resting my body alone / Feeling dangerously close to being a ghost"
(Independent)Opener "Back to Life" introduces the project with a techno-glazed hook delivering shades of the former, while follow-up "Say What You Want" smacks you in the face by way of a crushing instrumental and furious vocals. "You Don't Even Know" draws you gently back with a buoyant melody worthy of B.C.'s finest surf towns.
And, although I'm no surfer (landlocked as I am), those are the songs on Chameleon that I continue to circle back to in the weeks following its release. They even firm up toward the end of the project, when the fluttering, wordless tones of "Remember Me" bleed seamlessly into the charming storytelling on "It Don't Take Much" before "So Long" bids the listener a vulnerable adieu.
"I'm afraid of everything that I've come not to know / Like calling every shot now, on my own / Resting my body alone / Feeling dangerously close to being a ghost"