New Music: Vivid Bloom – In Strange Places

In Strange Places has a tension that you don’t usually find in shoegaze and also an air of danger lurking within.

Boston quartet Vivid Bloom – vocalist and guitarist Erika Hansen, bassist Tracy Putnam, drummer Alison Murray, and guitarist Dan Parlin – embroider a dense and heavy arrangement that is shot through with ethereal vocals and a sombre message of warning and danger in the lyrics.

The visceral outsider energies of grunge and post-punk assert themselves at points, generally in the powerhouse guitars, making In Strange Places heavy but not oppressive. It’s a stark contrast to the lyrics: the band has spoken about how the track warns of the ease with which escapist ideologies can beguile the individual and whole societies. Though they have also highlighted that it may be about alien abduction, which again opens the track to more layers of interpretation, reinforcing its escapist essence.

Vivid Bloom are currently working on their debut album; for news on that, follow the band on Facebook or Instagram. In Strange Places can be downloaded on Bandcamp and heard on all major digital platforms, including Spotify.

Header photo by Sasha Pedro