This week’s Grammy nominations feature a song by Taylor Swift comparing herself to a monster (“Anti-Hero”) and a song by Olivia Rodrigo about someone behaving like a monster (“Vampire”). They are up against one another in a whole bunch of categories, which thematically seems fitting. Both great songs, but I’ll be pulling for Rodrigo as the underdog. I won’t be watching, though. I hold to the general principal that no matter how solid a pair of rival pop songs are, the Grammys still suck.
Speaking of pop music, the Odyssey seems to be on a roll with bands like Girl in Red and the aforementioned Swift, and now this next artist, from a bit closer to home.
Disc 1707 is…Below the Salt
Artist: Haley Blais
Year of Release: 2020
What’s up with the Cover? Giant Baby Head Cover. Yuck. Focus just three quarters more to the left and we could have Blais’ Giant Head, but instead we get this fucking baby. This is the worst Giant Baby cover since Clem Snide’s album reviewed back at Disc 1555. Also, is that baby smirking at me? You wipe that smirk off your face, baby!
How I Came To Know It: Haley Blais played at an outdoor event in Victoria last summer. I was there to see Whitehorse, but decided to check out Haley Blais who was on before them. I bought her album and tour shirt at the merch table.
How It Stacks Up: Haley Blais has two albums, but I only have one, so it can’t stack up.
Rating: 2 stars
My concert review of last July indicates that I found Haley Blais “solid” and that I really liked her t-shirt. Also that I had “checked out her albums prior and liked what I heard.” I wouldn’t go as far to say I was wrong at the time, but I will say the record has not stood up as well under closer examination. The tour shirt is still dope, though. That’s a keeper.
“Below the Salt” is an atmospheric pop record that feels like it suffered a bit too much care and attention in the studio. Lots of dreamy Cure-style reverb and guitar but lacking the restless energy that makes the Cure so compelling. The production is layered but distant, like someone has fidgeted with the various nobs on the mixing board one too many times.
It doesn’t help that I’ve recently reviewed two seriously good pop records, in Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” and Girl in Red’s “If I Could Make It Go Quiet”. Those records have a crisp talent for production, so carefully constructed that it is almost a fault. “Below the Salt” sounds like the same care and attention went into it but the results are neither offensive nor inspiring. Capable, but ultimately just OK.
Blais’ voice has a good tone to it, sweet and a bit airy. Not powerful, but assured. Unfortunately, she sometimes falls into the bad habit of curling a lisp into her delivery, and not finishing her words. This can work when done well, but more often than not it feels affected. Just sing loud, sing proud and you’re more likely to make an impression. I read on the Interwebs that she is classically trained, so I would not have expected this but maybe it is just a compensation to not sound too formal. This is pop music, after all.
I was also disappointed that the song ‘Firestarter” was not about the Stephen King character with pyrokinesis. A real lost opportunity.
Because of the busy and distant production, I had a hard time following along with the lyrics, although the album was noticeably better on headphones, where you could immerse yourself in the layers. That helped, but ultimately not enough to inspire me to keep it.
There were strong moments on “Below the Salt” but whatever magic I first heard that motivated me to get down to the Whitehorse show early, and to buy the album from the merch table didn’t survive sufficiently from July until now. It is a solid record, but I’ll be moving it along to a home where it’ll get more love than it will in mine.
Best tracks: Someone Called While You Were Out, On a Weekend, Asleep
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