SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BLOOD RED SHOES – GET TRAGIC

Blood Red Shoes
Get Tragic
Jazz Life Records

The beauty of the two-piece band is that its personality can be bipolar in a most exciting way. Blood Red Shoes elegantly makes this point on their exquisite new album, Get Tragic.  After touring their last effort, In Time To Voices, endlessly, with ftime spent apart for creative pursuits and to reassess their own personal selves, guitarist Laura-Mary Carter and drummer Steven Ansell patiently prepared this hearty yet arty ten-course feast (consider “(Interlude)” a 48 second 10cc sip before the dynamic finish) that eclipses all their past studio work and displays their maturity and craftsmanship.  Each track shines, and the album in toto grows with each playing.  Treats include Ansell’s Fred Schneider droll vocal on the very B-52-like “Bangsar,” the anthemic, clockish “Find My Own,” which upticks Coldplay, and the puffed-up toy snare and underwater piano of “Beverly.”  Never fear: ever present are Carter’s well-placed guitar plunges and their astute vocal interplay, and the lyrics reveal but don’t ambush the tale they needed to tell.  Their collaborations on three tracks with musical friends add spice, not filler, and don’t infringe on The Shoes’ tasteful mix of ethereal and visceral.  “Anxiety” is Ansell confessing with Carter’s backing vocals condoning.  “Vertigo” counters the sentiment in 4/4 drum cracks and seems like the closer until Carter’s lovely “Elijah” follows as a big, sloshy U2 kind of stick-in-your-head-all-night tort. Get Tragic is an exceptional album.

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