Single Review – In The Skies by The Blue Herons (2020) (Self released)
The Blue Herons is the latest project of The Churchill Gardenman Andy Jossi. As such, there is always going to be the absolute potential for jangle, which is especially fulfilled on this track.
However, whereas the TCG sound tended to use jangle as an ignition for all manner of poignant, ethereal and ambient and indeed in the more dreamy sound of the previous, The Way You Look At Me single, In The Skies is somewhat more subservient in it’s acquiescence towards the more traditional early 90’s jangle-pop sound.
The reason for this could be the change in vocalist. For in Gretchen DeVault (of The Icicles et all, fame) Jossi has teamed up with someone whose natural vocal style is becoming increasingly unique in modern day indie-pop, inasmuch that she has a genuine uncluttered quality to her vocal delivery.
Such a sound is unfettered by the post Sarah Records need to add all manner of hush and sultry to the every single indie-pop female vocalist the world will ever see. As such we are left with just the beautiful vocals of a woman who invites and thrives upon more muscular levels of jangled riffs and percussion. Hers is the propulsive sound of a Wendy Pickles (The Popguns) or Mary Wyer (Even As We Speak) and she simply courts the jangly dynamism that this track provides.
Although Jossi regularly changes the vocalists he works with, apparently this pair are working on host of new material. Lets hope enough of it materializes to get a full length on the Bandcamp cyber-shelves, very soon.
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