Strangefinger: Into the Blue (CD on Side B Music)

Band: Strangefinger
Label: Side B Music
Title: Into the Blue

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Band:Strangefinger
Title:Into the Blue
Reviewed By:Malcolm Carter
Date Published:07/10/2009

Label:Side B Music
Format:CD
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It appears that this album has been around for some time: as far back as 2005 it was released as ‘Sound Awake’ in some territories and now the good people at Side B Music have finally issued the album in the U.K. So was it worth the wait and is an album that was recorded over four years ago still relevant today? Make that a resounding yes on both questions.

Strangefinger are very much a band on this album but it’s obvious that it’s really the vision of one Fred Lemke who wrote all the material and co-produced the album with Chris Manning (brother of Roger and one time member of Jellyfish). It’s also obvious from the very first few seconds of wordless harmonies which open the proceedings on the first song, ‘Sleep’, that Lemke has been not a little inspired by the work of Brian Wilson and countless melodic singer / songwriters of the early seventies. A lush production which is the ideal setting for Lemke’s hook-filled songs gives a further retro-feel to the songs but these are no laid-back, easy going songs that will be soon forgotten.

One word that keeps coming to mind while listening to these thirteen songs (plus another five radio edits tagged onto the end of this edition of the CD) is class. While the term power-pop has been used in almost every piece you can find about this tiny gem of an album it actually doesn’t really do the songs justice. I’d be the first to agree that the roots of every song here lay in the power-pop genre, sharp, melodic tunes with enough hooks to keep you humming them all day but Lemke and company by incorporating such heavenly harmonies and unexpected twists and turns throughout the songs have almost set a new template for the genre.

Most of the songs, while not exactly slow power-pop ballads do tend to be on the leisurely side and when the band do take a tougher stance and push things along a little more urgently it fails to impress. Thankfully this only happens once. The song ‘Fuck You Stars’ is an attempt to punk things up a little and it fails miserably. It interrupts the flow of the album and as the songs on this edition of ‘Into The Blue’ are programmed to flow into each other this song just throws the whole thing off course. They give us twelve songs of pure pop beauty then throw a spanner in the works by changing direction completely and not in a successful way. It’s a shame as it’s the only dip in quality throughout the whole album.

The fact that it’s followed by the jazz-infused ‘Sugar’ just confirms how out of place that preceding song is, ‘Sugar’ showcases all that is good about this band ; gentle melodies, superb singing and harmonies and excellent playing, that this song segues into the prettiest ballad on the album, namely ‘Two Angels’ which is beautifully sung and a perfect summer-radio song really hammers it home.

The remaining two songs, ‘There’s an Ocean’ with it’s stunning guitar solo and closing track ‘Moonshine’ which is an instrumental to match ‘Let’s Go Away for Awhile’ from ‘Pet Sounds’ prove once again that, even with that blip towards the end of the album, Fred Lemke along with his fellow band members and Chris Manning has produced a minor classic.

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Catchy, harmonic power pop on debut album from Californian group Strangefinger, which having come out originally in 2005 has just been reissued

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Into the Blue - CD
Catchy, harmonic power pop on debut album from Californian group Strangefinger, which having come out originally in 2005 has just been reissued

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