Blue Shade Witness

Item: Blue Shade Witness
Author: Tyler Baber

(2003)

Reviewed by Tyler Baber

Discogs Apple Music TIDAL Spotify YouTube Music

Label Double Zero RecordsDecapolisAugust 2003

alternative rock britpop indie rock post-grunge

The US and Britain have a strange relationship. Americans drive SUVs, Brits drive on the wrong side of the road. We're not quite as entranced in celebrity tabloid magazines, they don't care about our celebrities. We have much less embarrassing names for cigarettes while they have better news programs. They're responsible for the Spice Girls, we're responsible for fast food. They listen to and emulate our hip hop, folk and country; we can't get over the fact that they make much cooler noises with guitars. So while they crank out the likes of Ms. Dynamite and the Streets (who, try as they may, are no match to American counterparts), we crank out dozens of Coldplays and Blurs and Radioheads.

Blue Shade Witness is a band heavily influenced by what is in Britain pop rock, although in America the music is primarily available in less mainstream formats. The band's self titled EP is their debut for Double Zero Records and the music found in each of the six songs would like nothing more than to be compared to the likes of a more Pablo Honey era Radiohead, Coldplay, Ride in their later years or Ash at any point in their ignored-by-America career. Joel Bennet sings in a sort of mellow whine that proves he learned to whine with the best of 'em (britcoms and Nick Hornby novels, perhaps?). Joel and fellow guitarist Aaron Ruse play shoegazing, driving guitars with interludes of reverb and tremolo. And they have all the production of any four piece from Manchester.

But Blue Shade Witness is from Chicago. Not that being an American band heavily influenced by British bands is bad, but the boys in BSW don't quite have that cockney attitude that throws back to Britpunk or the handsome, soft spoken cool of guys like Thom Yorke and Chris Martin. Blue Shade Witness is focused more on getting the science of the music down and less on understanding the art.

That said, it is understandable that Blue Shade Witness can sound so tight and together without really ever making an impact on the listener. There aren't any of the catchy, anthemic choruses that make Oasis and Ash so popular over in the isles. There's none of the laid back charm that makes Coldplay so popular everywhere. And there's absolutely none of the poetry that comes when you're holed in a dirty London flat on a grey coloured afternoon. In fact, Blue Shade Witness's lyrical best is the equivalent of any of the aforementioned bands on a bad day.

Take, for example, the chorus from BSW's song "The Way it's Meant to Be." How can this be/ the way that it's meant to be/ can we mend the broken strings/ So what can I say/ Are you leaving today/ It's to easy to let it slip away. These are words the listener is a bit embarrassed to sing along with and they command no emotional connection on even the simplest levels.

The EP's single, "The Stars Will Shine," is its strongest moment and the band would do well to try and improve on what they have here. The EP also contains a video of "The Stars Will Shine" which only confirms the lack of artistic direction. In the video the band is playing in an empty theatre while a bloke walks out on his bird. By the end of the video the band is playing for a full house, the boy and the girl are reunited, fireworks are exploding in the sky and the listener realizes how very different Blue Shade Witness is from this fairy tale world they've created.

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