There might me more than a little cheek behind Andy Dragazis' decision to title his group's fourth album First Steps Into..., as well as choosing to reuse the rounded sci-fi font from Blue States' debut, 1998's Nothing Changes Under the Sun. That album, featuring Dragazis as essentially a one-man band, was a gorgeous conglomeration of downtempo, cinematic instrumentals that melded the sumptuous swoon of Air's orchestral works with the film-noir sensibilities of trip-hop's finest proponents. The following two albums expanded on this template: 2002's Man Mountain (featuring future New Young Pony Club vocalist Tahita Bulmer making like Sarah McLachlan) was a more expansive and lush effort, while The Soundings found Dragazis and friends (with Bulmer replaced by a guy who sounds like an Oasis cover-band frontman) in an less-than-inspired UK indie mood. (If you're at all curious, Blue States' official site features a media player on its front page containing more than 25 tracks from all Blue States albums.) On the latest Blue States album, Dragazis is back where he started, going it alone (with a little help from a friendly drummer) and returning to a more instrumental state of mind. Unfortunately, whatever inspired Dragazis the first time around is nowhere to be found on this supposed return trip.
Even at its most grating-- and there's not much more grating than making mid-tempo rock moves like Creation Records mogul Alan McGee is in the audience with a signing bonus and some free coke-- Blue States' music possessed an invigorating sense of grandeur and scope. On First Steps Into..., this larger-than-life aura is replaced by a stilting claustrophobic pallor. Most of the tracks sound like would-be 10-minute instrumental epics-- think Godspeed! You Black Emperor going Hollywood-- crammed into three-minute frames. As a result, the songs misfire on all cylinders. Opener "Allies" is sabotaged by an arrangement that seems to be written for real instruments, but ends up essayed by tinny replicas. Being fronted by a sampled and distorted voice (either Dragazis himself, or one of his exes) only adds to the mess. These voices pop up every so often, subsumed by a mass of misplaced music. The one time they do take center stage, it's on "Down The Days"-- while Dragazis' voice seems as well and fine as can be expected through all the filters and chicanery, the woman's vocal track is seemingly sped up to Chipmunk-like speed, making an already-chirpy clatter that much more obnoxious.
If the songs aren't drowning in sour sounds, then they're fronting on some tepid funk front ("First Steps...Last Stand"), or they're going for the unearned climactic string-swell thirty seconds in ("Holding Ground"), or they're mired in a mid-tempo morass ("Gaining Time"), or they're changing plans of attack mid-stream without any kind of reason. The worst offender on that final front is "The Electric Complement", which starts off with one of those premature climaxes, continues to build to a portentous crescendo, then for no apparent reason stops and becomes a shiny happy hand-clappy tune for the final 60 seconds. These descriptions might make First Steps Into... out to be some sort of ramshackle chaotic mish-mash-- if only. This album sounds like the work of Blue States past ground together into an indistinguishable and interminable mud. Only at the end of the album, with "Last Of Old England", does a successful synthesis emerge. Those looking for a more enjoyable attempt at a taking-stock exercise are urged to visit the band's site and give a listen to the media player I mentioned at the start of the review-- even those would-be champagne supernovas don't sound half bad in this context.
