Photo by Scott Sanford
Listen to Francis Blume and you might just be transported to another world. A place cast in Technicolor (but with a touch of faint film grain) where men have an ironed crease in their slacks and women button their sweaters up almost all the way up to their neck. Cast in pinks and blues or in black and white the world might be cheeky and clean at least in front of the picket fences. Blume's interpretation of love and longing on his album “Lado De Loma” sit somewhere between Roy Orbison and Eddie Cochran (with a touch of Elvis) circa 1955 to 1965. Blume is a real crooner. Just listen to the second to the last track The Last Goodbye. Like all the songs on "Lado De Loma", he doesn't create a facsimile of that idealized time but captures the tones and atmosphere exactly. So much so, that in these cynical times it is easy to view them as ironic or maybe even twisted and they certainly would be evocative in some David Lynchian story, flick but listening to the album in total and you realize these homages are full of love for the sound. The track Mary Jane & Suzie Lee takes progs from familiar, iconic songs. You can feel the ghosts (and hear the yelps of and guitar licks) of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry. Some of the songs have touches of ambient sound to further the stories like the snap of opening a beer on the western wanderlust of Colorado or what sounds like transportation in the dreamy, mind bender Amsterdam Effect that might feel the most surreal (on purpose). It is a slow dance with hushed voices in the background with an unknown but intriguing back story (I'm sure). The cheeky Senorita with Blume's actual narration at the beginning, made me smile and maybe wince but in a good way, "Senorita, it's nice to meet ya" sung unabashedly turning the kookiness into something charming. Highway 61 is the most Elvis, think his legendary 1968 comeback special. And finally, there is Sad Boy (the reason for this track review that became something else). The track if listened apart from the album felt to me like something between sock hop punk (think Buttertones) but Blume's vocal presentation sounds so 1958 authentic that is shifts your thinking. The orchestration helps too and takes you to other times (that is if you are a bit of a music historian or just into the roots of where we are now). In the end, Blume's homages to past days and sounds with his original music is done with stunning clarity. If you can pull yourself away from your punk or hip hop and listen to "Lado De Loma" from start to finish (afterwards) you might just put some product in your hair and get it just so, with a couple of dangling strands hanging like an upside down question mark.
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Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Francis Blume is a singer/songwriter from San Diego, CA.
Drawing inspiration from all genres, Blume's sound hearkens back to the Golden Age of American rock music while still remaining relevant to the modern audience.
"Sad Boy is just the single from a full length album titled “Lado De Loma” that I recently released. That album, along with all of my other music is available on pretty much all 197 streaming platforms. I recorded this whole record independently in a mobile home park in San Diego."
Spotify:
Apple Music:
Instagram: @francis.blume
Facebook: @francis.blume
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