I first heard Yard of Blondes last year when we reviewed their first single “Do You Need More”, a solid hard rock track. Now, they have just released the full length “Feed The Moon” which includes that single and 11 other alt-rock/hard rock tracks. Produced by Billy Graziadei (Biohazard), mixed by Michael Patterson (Nine Inch Nails), and mastered by Maor Applebaum (Faith No More), the band has some bigger names involved so that grabs your attention. The songs have a lot of 80s rock and early 90s alt-rock elements, and the songs and musicianship are well crafted and well performed. For me though, there seems to be something lacking, as the band and the record as a whole seem to be somewhat nondescript. The songs seem to blend into each other, and the production is so clean it seems to take away from the power and grit the band seem to potentially exude live. While on one hand it is great to hear a hard rock band unapologetically perform music of a genre that no longer dominates, the lack of distinctive qualities seems to take away from that. One highlight is “1994”, this track has a nice melody and chorus that helps it stand out, but it took until track 7 for a song to grab me. The lead guitar playing is also a highlight, it is fluid and confident. While the band has this great crisp sounding record, I can’t help but wonder what they sound like live, or better yet, recorded in a smaller studio with a much smaller budget but with engineers and producers who don’t take the energy and life out of the recordings/songs. Overall this is a professionally made record that fans of the aforementioned era and genre may really be into but may or may not reach beyond that specific audience.
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Website
- Don Lorenzo