“Their standout difference is singer Elin Larsson, a slightly built young woman she may be, but when she wails her vocals, it creates a feeling not unlike a young Janis Joplin. She really is that good.”
I wrote that on the 16th November 2013, on the blog that eventually became another blog that became this site the following year.
Blues Pills were there, in Nuneaton, that Saturday night to open for Scorpion Child, and if you want to chart their evolution from that day to this, then its easy to do it through Larsson. She is still superb, but back then she was kind of nervous. I remember her dedicating “Little Sun to her best friend, who was – I think – selling the bands t-shirts.
Now, in 2020, she’s a confident rock star. She’s the “proud fucking woman” as she puts it, on “Holy Moly’s” opening track.
Album number three feels like a statement and it feels like “….Woman” is at the centre of it. And without denigrating any of the music here (indeed, Zack Anderson, now on Lead Guitar is in top form) it feels like this is Larsson’s record.
She roars her way through “Low Road”, rising above the Rival Sons-ish music, as if she’s right on the pinnacle of her powers.
When “Holy Moly!” gets it right, as on the short, sharp and to the point “Dreaming My Life Away” or the huge, soulful ballad “California” – perhaps the very best thing this has – then its as good as anything the band have ever done. Maybe even better, especially when there’s a primal energy such as on “Rhythm In The Blood”.
It does, though, feel like Blues Pills are a band reaching for some kind of change, because not for nothing does the latter talk about “the lucy and the pills”. The second half of the record – the “Moly!” to the opening “Holy” if you will – is full of swirling psychedelic moments.
And that’s cool if you like the pills rather than the blues. More to the point, you can’t deny the quality of “Dust” or the disco elements to “Kiss My Past Goodbye” – maybe the title is a hint to the metamorphosis? – but for my money there’s just a touch too much balladry in the end of the collection.
“Wish I’d Known” is a decent slice of heartbreak, but it doesn’t really suit the vibe of the opening few, where Larsson was going to take over the planet and you weren’t going to stop her. “Bye Bye Birdie” is better, as it chugs along on the back of a funky groove, and there’s some real feeling in the way she yells, “start packing now!” that’s more like what you imagine the mindset to be.
“Song From The Mourning Dove” sounds exquisite but lacks something, however the real gravitas is saved for the superb final track. “Longest Lasting Friend”, a genuinely fragile trawl into the darkness of the mind.
It highlights a band that has doubtless talent, and will doubtless continue to reach for what it wants to find. On “Holy Moly!” it seems a little like they are trying to shed the old a touch, before reaching exactly where the destination is to be.
Rating 7/10
