Blossoms showcase new album 'Gary' at The Jacaranda, Liverpool!

Manchester's Indie giants Blossoms recently took to The Jacaranda, Liverpool, for three special performances showcasing their brand new album 'Gary'. These intimate performances offered a close up view on the intricate song craft on the record, shining a light on the intertwining guitar parts, the velvety harmonies, groove-laden rhythms and infectious melodies. After watching their mesmerising stripped-back show, we had a chance to further reflect on what we thought of the new album...

Photo Credit: Dylan Cox / @dylancoxmedia

In true Blossoms fashion, the band find their fifth studio album immersed in an unconventional anecdote, this time involving an 8ft fibreglass Gorilla stolen from a garden centre – Gary. Blossoms have a knack for crafting music that we feel is unapologetically retro yet simultaneously modern, and this playful record makes no exception to that. This wonderfully crafted 10 song album is the perfect goodbye to summer as Tom Ogden’s vocals and the band’s synth-driven grooves dance with us into the colder months. 

The title track ‘Gary’ got first dibs on the album name for a reason. Being the third song on the album, it nicely settles us into what the album is all about: playfulness and emotion. With the catchiest hook we’ve heard all year, and acoustics layered on programmed drums inspired by Frank Ocean’s ‘Lost’, Tom manages to transform lyrics of an inside joke into something heartfelt. Its perhaps a sixth sense to relate song lyrics to our own narratives, and we find ourselves missing our very own ‘Gary’ and their "fibreglass heart" whilst Blossoms create the soundtrack.

The band continue to give us that sense of relatability throughout the rest of the album. ‘Nightclub’ and ‘Mothers’ takes us exactly there. When "me and you skip the line with your ID" in hand to the sound of a funky bassline by Charlie Salt, nostalgia swarms our senses. Cleverly, Tom Ogden also manages to conjoin the feelings of nostalgia with coming of age; ‘Perfect Me’ with the futuristic synths grounds us as we "come to our senses" and the band reminds us to "just keep breathing". 

The album’s final track ‘Why Do I Give You the Worst of Me?’ is totally honest, in its lyrics and its beautiful guitar riffs, totally Blossoms. The satisfying ending perfectly marries together the Blossoms we know and their new life as independent artists. A totally spontaneous subject of an album packed with earworms and the total need to dance.

Review by Rachel Puk