Album Review
Bleech – Nude
This excellent debut album from London rockers Bleech demonstrates that they are fast becoming a force to be reckoned with. The ten song collection includes three good singles and several other tracks instantly identifiable with the band’s trademark high tempo and high energy approach. But there are also two slower tracks that add variety and demonstrate a softer side to the band.
Bleech is a sister fronted trio, with Jennifer O’Neill on guitar and lead vocals, Katherine O’Neill on bass and vocals and Matt Bick at the drums. They have a big sound and bring loads of punk/ new wave attitude to their modern sounding rock music.
Weirdo kicks things off with a track that typifies the Bleech approach. It’s a fast and energetic, guitar driven song and features lovely expressive vocals with a big chorus. Break My Nose follows and the guitar again propels the song forward at pace as the vocals are spat out. The pace falls momentarily before another of those harmonic wall of sound style choruses.
Past single Mondays was featured on TV’s Waterloo Road. It’s pretty much the archetypical Bleech song, with anthemic lyrics backed by a strident guitar sound, thunderous bass and pounding drums. The chorus is wonderfully cheerful, too much so perhaps for a song about no one’s favorite day of the week. The Worthing Song is an old track that will be familiar to those who have seen the band play live. This one was a single too, although this version sounds harsher but every bit as powerful and has a great feedback guitar ending.
Flowerhands is the first of the slower tracks and I love it. It comes in just as the album is settling into a groove and takes it in another direction entirely. Gentle strings and a plucked guitar back impassioned vocals in what could be a mid-album dream sequence. Jen O’Neill’s voice sounds great here and she nails the emotional tone of the song perfectly.
And then things take off once more with the current single Adrenalin Junkie, the guitar chords echoing behind strong vocals as the drums set a frantic pace. This is a great upbeat song with a new wave feel that will sound tremendous live. And the next track Holiday has a chorus that is just the perfect summer sound, the simple lyrics giving it great power.
I Wanna Be Me is a defiant post punk song. It’s full of angst and attitude, with the struggle for identity is perfectly portrayed. The chorus is once more lyrically simple yet effective and so damned catchy. Dancing Without You starts with a great drum beat before the guitar and bass join in. The vocals are again passionate and the loneliness of the title is well expressed. The sound here is somehow very American, full of solid chord progressions, and it works well with the very English vocals. I like this one a lot.
When I Get Old is the second slow song and closes the album with a lovely statement of how our views and priorities may change as we age, yet we still need that special someone. It’s perhaps the most complex song on the album and ends it with a great deal of style.
Bleech generally take a fairly simple approach to music. Lyrically most of their songs are direct and honest. The sound is mainly straightforward guitar driven pop-rock. But they do it very well. They have a big sound for a three piece band and combine so well together.
Nude is a fine debut album that both plays to the known strengths of the band, yet also adds something extra with the slower tracks. But at just 30 minutes and ten tracks long I can’t help wanting more. Still, that’s not a bad feeling to have on hearing a debut album, is it?
And I’m sure Bleech will have much more to offer us in the coming years.