Borns returns to the spotlight with his sophomore album, Blue Madonna. His new album plays off of the falsetto themes that he introduced listeners to with Dopamine. The new album starts with a catchy rhythmic song that features Lana Del Rey's vocals alongside Garrett's. Luckily, Lana Del Rey does not overpower the awesomeness of Borns's voice on the first track. After the first track, the album starts to take off with one of the lead singles that was released before the full LP. "Faded Heart" quickly shoes off Borns's falsetto vocals with echoes and a lot of drum and string layerings to fill the background.
The next song on the track brings some dreamy and shimmering instrumentals to pair with the vocals at the forefront. The soundscape is large, but smooth without too much tenseness. "Sweet Dreams" is loud, but relaxing to the ears. This soothes us into the trippy track, "We Don't Care". The fourth track has the most diverse instrumentals, often sounding like it has a Middle Eastern influence floating around in the background. Everything builds up until the last second of the song, progressing us into the latter half of the album.
After a more generic indie pop track, Borns strips the instrumentals to start "Iceberg". Instrumentals come and go throughout the song, creating an unpredictable soundscape. After two minutes, the music opens up to bring in more melodies and guitar riffs. The track floats us around as we wade through the unique rhythms. "Second Night Of Summer" brings us back down to earth with some really nice high vocals from Borns. Finally we get to my favorite track on the album, "I Don't Want You Back". The track has a really catchy beat with a nice soundscape of resonating chords. The lyrics are subtle, but heavy. This is an oddball break-up song, that is far away from typical. The beat pulls you in, and might make you snap along at times.
A short interlude leads us straight into the final portion of the album. "Supernatural" brings us off of Earth again with distorted vocals and really odd high pitched noises towards the end. These alien-esque vocals would be interesting to see live, and certainly explain the track's title. Unfortunately, the titular track for the album is the blandest track. "Blue Madonna" is draggy and does not really progress the mood of the album. Fortunately, Borns leaves us with a fantastic final track. The synth and piano opening on "Bye-bye Darling" eases us off of the album. It's a nice send off that shows off all of Garrett Borns's talents as a singer. The track is weightless, and almost sounds like something off of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I'm not sure if there was any Beatles influence here, but it sure sounds like it!
Score: 9/10
Favorite Tracks: "God Save Our Young Blood", "Faded Heart", "We Don't Care", "I Don't Want You Back", "Bye-bye Darling"
Least Favorite Tracks: "Man", "Iceberg"
The next song on the track brings some dreamy and shimmering instrumentals to pair with the vocals at the forefront. The soundscape is large, but smooth without too much tenseness. "Sweet Dreams" is loud, but relaxing to the ears. This soothes us into the trippy track, "We Don't Care". The fourth track has the most diverse instrumentals, often sounding like it has a Middle Eastern influence floating around in the background. Everything builds up until the last second of the song, progressing us into the latter half of the album.
After a more generic indie pop track, Borns strips the instrumentals to start "Iceberg". Instrumentals come and go throughout the song, creating an unpredictable soundscape. After two minutes, the music opens up to bring in more melodies and guitar riffs. The track floats us around as we wade through the unique rhythms. "Second Night Of Summer" brings us back down to earth with some really nice high vocals from Borns. Finally we get to my favorite track on the album, "I Don't Want You Back". The track has a really catchy beat with a nice soundscape of resonating chords. The lyrics are subtle, but heavy. This is an oddball break-up song, that is far away from typical. The beat pulls you in, and might make you snap along at times.
A short interlude leads us straight into the final portion of the album. "Supernatural" brings us off of Earth again with distorted vocals and really odd high pitched noises towards the end. These alien-esque vocals would be interesting to see live, and certainly explain the track's title. Unfortunately, the titular track for the album is the blandest track. "Blue Madonna" is draggy and does not really progress the mood of the album. Fortunately, Borns leaves us with a fantastic final track. The synth and piano opening on "Bye-bye Darling" eases us off of the album. It's a nice send off that shows off all of Garrett Borns's talents as a singer. The track is weightless, and almost sounds like something off of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I'm not sure if there was any Beatles influence here, but it sure sounds like it!
Score: 9/10
Favorite Tracks: "God Save Our Young Blood", "Faded Heart", "We Don't Care", "I Don't Want You Back", "Bye-bye Darling"
Least Favorite Tracks: "Man", "Iceberg"
Image credit: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56297403
