- Released: 2020
- Origin: Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Label: Artoffact
- Best Track: Parallel
I kind of hate accepting Apple Music’s suggestions for who I should listen to. It’s certainly not a cool way to admit to discovering a band! Still, it’s occasionally true and that’s the case for Bootblacks.
Released earlier this month, Thin Skies is the fourth album from the New York post-punks, and their first on Artoffact records.
I didn’t care for it at first, and thought it was pretty uninspired post-punk by numbers. It still doesn’t blow me away after several listens, but I am starting to appreciate some of the riffs and subtleties a little more.
It’s main weakness is probably that it’s a bit monotone vocally, which is what makes the ’80s-esque ‘New Lines’ stand out with its echo-drenched refrain of “you cry out” . I really like the probing synthesisers of ‘Parallel’ too – a compelling track.
Thin Skies is nothing that hasn’t been done before, but if you need something paranoid and gloomy to get you through the misery of Covid, you could do far worse.
366Music 