{"id":22824,"date":"2022-04-24T05:30:55","date_gmt":"2022-04-24T09:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22824"},"modified":"2022-04-22T16:53:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T20:53:13","slug":"album-review-the-bye-bye-blackbirds-august-lightning-complex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/24\/album-review-the-bye-bye-blackbirds-august-lightning-complex\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Bye Bye Blackbirds \u2013 August Lightning Complex"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A new record from The Bye Bye Blackbirds is always welcome<\/a>. Songwriter and guitarist Bradley Skaught is a songwriter who bends classic songwriting structure to his personal needs. Even though it has a title that sounds like something Robert Pollard might come up with, August Lightning Complex<\/i> is another winning set of songs in a timeless style.<\/p>\n

The oddly-titled opener, \u201cWant Show as Young\u201d has a subtly country flavor, but it\u2019s only \u201ccountry\u201d in the way that some of Pete Ham and Tom Evans\u2019 original songs for Badfingner were country. It\u2019s more of a feeling than a sound, and it\u2019s effective.<\/p>\n

Not to fixate overly on that first track, but it is representative of the qualities that make the group special. Subtle brass works its way into the mix, providing another sonic connection to Badfinger. In this case, late-period classic Badfinger circa Wish You Were Here.<\/p>\n

That bit of twang figures into the more rocking numbers, as well, but never to the point of leading anyone to mistake August Lightning Complex<\/i> as Americana (or alt-country, if that term remains in use anywhere). It\u2019s really heartland rock, even though Skaught is based in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

Even a shortish review of this album would be irresponsible if it didn\u2019t shine a metaphorical light on the backing vocals of Kelly Atkins. Her work \u2013 sometimes singing in a kind of overlapping call-and-response fashion, other time in harmony with Skaught \u2013 is beautiful and obviously heartfelt. And it\u2019s one of this album\u2019s chief virtues.<\/p>\n

And as fine a song as \u201cWe Got Lost\u201d truly is, its reprise takes the tune into the stratosphere. Fans of powerpop will dig the album as a whole, but they might find \u201cFavorite Stars\u201d a special treat. And while you might thnk that a nine-minutes-plus song on such a pop-leaning album would be out of character, it fits wonderfully: \u201cMarching\u201d is hypnotic and alluring.<\/p>\n

The interlocking guitar figures in \u201cOut on the Waves\u201d do in fact provide a musical metaphor for a roiling ocean. And that kind of subtle touch is a hallmark of Skaught\u2019s writing. His songs are often more complex and multilayered than they at first seem. That\u2019s an impressive characteristic, and what it means is that The Bye Bye Blackbirds\u2019 music can be enjoyed on multiple levels. You can go about your business and let it provide a soundtrack; it\u2019s very well-suited ofr that. But – -and more importantly \u2013 August Lightning Complex<\/i> is the kind of record that you can spend time with, time getting to know its intricacies. And the record rewards that endeavor.<\/p>\n

Recommended, but I suspected that going in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new record from The Bye Bye Blackbirds is always welcome. Songwriter and guitarist Bradley Skaught is a songwriter who bends classic songwriting structure to his personal needs. Even though […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,49,62,65],"tags":[446],"class_list":["post-22824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-bye-bye-blackbirds","cat-39-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22826,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22824\/revisions\/22826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}