This Blue Heaven is a keyboard driven pop-rock band with a girl singer and sprightly melodies. On this debut CD QuickSandGlass, the quintet, who don’t sound like anybody else, offer up plenty of pleasant ditties.
Vocalist MacKenzie Outlund’s pretty voice has an ethereal quality that sounds like she is floating just above the band. She can pull in listeners with her pristine shine while the players of This Blue Heaven construct irresistible melodies and rhythms. All five band members contribute fully to the feel of each song.
“Bliss” opens the disc with a finger snapping, handclapping, catchy rhythm section. Outlund’s pretty vocal is buttressed by bouncy piano melodies. She knows how to rock to a rhythm track, modulating her voice perfectly to whatever goes on around her. Keyboardist Aaron Rosenthal brings a sense of uptempo, catchy rhythms. Guitarist Stu Dietz has an uncanny sense of how much drive to put into his melodic lines and phrases. Any more and he’d be too heavy; any less and he’d lose the listener.
This Blue Heaven have perfected the art of song craft and sonic structures. Outlund sings “My Disgrace” with tasteful pop restraint. You can almost picture her singing to a music director’s baton. Outlund also has the “it” factor in her timbre. She sounds good while also sounding distinct. Behind her, Dietz applies a guitar phrase with just the right amount of edge.
“That Summer” breezes merrily along, with Outlund vocalizing with the rhythm of a dancer over the lovely timing of drummer Brandon Erdos and bass player Mark Desrosiers. The rhythm section are not sidemen in this project. The two are essential cornerstones holding up the architected sound.
“As Ever As Always” gives us more of Desrosiers muscular bass playing. He is a low ender who can push a song forward while contributing to its colors and tones. Outland practically glides through twisty lyrics and twisty rhythms. Listen carefully and you’ll hear all the nuances she applies. Lush synthesizer melody and assertive guitar lines drape this piece in pop-rock exuberance. It’s the layers that indicate how well a band goes over and This Blue Heaven has it down to a science.
The opening notes to “Innocent Again” hearken back to the glory days of pop-rock past. A swirl of keyboard chords and a marching guitar rhythm appear out of nowhere, and a song is born in the consciousness of a listener. Guitar and piano move this along while a synth line give it a hook that can’t be ignored. The other players, meanwhile, dress this up in sweet confections of melodious texture.
“Any Other Way” plays out with a nervous twitchy rhythm. Outlund grooves her way through the piece with a lushness in her timbre. The rhythm underneath her is jaunty, jumpy, fresh and wholesome. This is what pop rock is supposed to sound like. Influences, like late 1980s U2, show up briefly before fading into the background of what is really a new sound in pop-rock. There is a little bit of The Cars in here too, keyboard and guitar melodies taking turns leading and or supporting the melody.
“Any Other Way” is cruising down the highway with the top down music. The instrumental portion of this song is far out, man. A dizzying, spiraling synth melody rocks it.
This Blue Heaven have mastered song craft in a variety of song structures. “But As Hard As You Try” intertwines piano and drums into a steady gallop that the guitar darts in and around while Outlund croons her sweet notes over it all. “This Time” grooves with a faux reggae beat, and “Insomnia” strikes all the right chords within a whispery, hushed dual vocal approach. “Future World” is an interesting electric-acoustic match up with each band member rocking out with dissonance and tension near the end. “When It Feels Like You’ve Never Been Gone” is an oddly appealing, moody love song.
QuickSandGlass closes out with a joyful buzz song “Where The Living Starts.” This is one of those songs that will make you jump up and down at the end of the show. It’s theme is to look at the bright side of life’s annoying, weird moments. Funny and upbeat, it is a good song for This Blue Heaven to close out with. It succinctly sums up their life philosophy and looks to the future. And their future looks heavenly, based on what they’ve come up with on this disc.