Blossoms - Foolish Loving Spaces review

Blossoms - Foolish Loving Spaces review

Stockport quintet celebrate love and the feelings that come with it on excellent third record.

Blossoms have released their third album, entitled Foolish Loving Spaces, and as frontman Tom Ogden described it, it's a 'celebration of love' and that shows in songs like Oh No (I Think I'm In Love), Falling For Someone, The Keeper and Romance, Eh?. It also continues the regular theme in Blossoms albums of heartbreak and that shows in lyrics like 'You said that I was unfair, your words, they poison the air' from opening track If You Think This Is Real Life.

Blossoms have also broken free from the previous styles they've specialised in on their last two records, especially second album Cool Like You, the band has described it as their most 'band-y record' which shows on songs like The Keeper, which could be mistaken for a song from Screamadelica by Primal Scream with its jangly piano sounds that are reminiscent of Movin' On Up, and Like Gravity, which also shows a band that is breaking new territory, with its moody verses and catchy chorus 'I've been around this town for days, now I'm in Foolish Loving Spaces in my mind'.

The Stockport quintet's third album also includes a song entitled My Vacant Days which is different from the other songs on the record in that it doesn't focus on the usual lyrical themes of love and heartbreak as it's about the days when you're not touring and the loneliness and boredom that ensues, as shown in lyrics like 'I'm a stranger in a place where I'm alive but in too deep' and 'My imagination plays all in My Vacant Days'. A particular shining point on the record is the track My Swimming Brain where Tom Ogden sings about his inability to love at times as shown in the lyric 'I forgot to be your lover, 'cause I'll never get through me and My Swimming Brain'.

The production on this album is especially tight, and for that, props has to be given to producer James Skelly as all the instruments used sound clear and nothing's been drowned out in the mix, and he demonstrates the joyous vibe they were obviously going for with this record. 

Overall, Foolish Loving Spaces definitely breaks new ground for Blossoms and it opens up a very interesting future for the band in terms of the style they are going for and if this record is anything to go by, fans and even non-fans should be very excited for whatever comes next.