Not gonna lie; when I sat down to chew over German multi-instrumentalist F.S. Blumm's third album, I was seeking revenge. Not on Frank Schültge Blumm, but on all the virtuosos I've encountered since fourth grade band class, when the girl down the street outplayed me in "When the Saints Come Marching In", reducing me to tears. You see, these virtuosos impeccably run up and down their scales, nailing their chords and key changes without any love for the music itself-- only its technicality. So here I go, ready to launch into my anti-Blumm harangue and release 12-plus years of embitterment when...aw shucks, Blumm done tugged on my heartstrings, again.
True, I should've seen this coming. 2002's Ankern wooed and coddled listeners with delicate melodies and gorgeous arrays of guitar, strings, piano, and nearly any other instrument he could get his hands on. As indie's answer to Yanni, Blumm left reviewers muttering sweet nothings like "atmospheric" or "uplifting." However, sheer prettiness couldn't hide that Ankern was often downright boring. On Zweite Meer, we find Blumm poking his musical ideas with a stick, wakening marginal progress.
Blumm's one-word track titles set the table for his equally sparse songs. Opener "Sonn" makes great background music, but sounds like a misplaced cog from a Sufjan Stevens arrangement or, say, something by Mouse on Mars, to whom Blumm has contributed the occasional horn or classical guitar part. The rest of the album comes across like a fusion of nearly every genre imaginable: Although the album's deeply rooted in folk and classical music, flecks of pop, shoegazer, lo-fi, and jazz pepper the otherwise homogenous mix. Unfortunately, the pulsing bass of "Wass" or clean-toned guitar improvising on "Wamdel" make mere divots on Blumm's otherwise flat, fallow landscape.
Before I completely scorch Blumm's songwriting chops, I will say this-- the man makes some damn charming music. Having a beef with innocuous music is hard, and I wouldn't mind hearing this album in every elevator I ever enter for the rest of my life. Zweite Meer's a veritable soundtrack for our lives, or rather the quotidian grocery shopping/mowing the lawn portion of them. It's probably playing in your room right now, you just don't notice it.
