Dave DeMarco (bass/keys), Pete Laramee (guitars), Kevin O'Brien (drums/keys) and Jeremy Stanley (vocals) are Blair Merlin. The band recently released an EP entitled A Flaw In The Atmosphere. They mention “All songs are about a person's relationship; either with oneself, with another person, or with society.”
The band opens with “Don’t Leave” and right away I was getting a mid ’90s alternative vibe. I grew up listening to very similar sounding bands on MTV and I swear a video was playing in my mind's eye while listening to this song. The song is atmospheric with orchestral swells, pads and acoustic guitar. I think the title of the song is self-evident and is about someone leaving and in this case on an airplane. Up next is “Both Been Wronged” and something about the structure of the song and the melodies gave me a feeling this song was more ’70s based. On that note the palette of sounds is largely similar. There’s some nice warm vocal harmonies in addition to the lead I thought sounded really good. They mention “Mourn The City” is about “Watching the city you love fall deeper and deeper into decline, and feeling helpless to do anything about it. It was written with Baltimore in mind, but unfortunately could be about any major city in this country.” The song revolves around a simple chord progression with the dynamics playing a big part in the enjoyment of the song. I thought the rhythm section really excelled on this song. There’s some well done delay effects on the vocals and a very warm instrumental section around the two- minute mark. The song feels like it gets just a little more intense as it progresses, especially the lead vocal. Although “Far From This Place” is called “From from This Place” on Apple Music I was able to make sense of it. It’s another solid song that felt straightforward to me revolving around strummed chords, minor and major chords and a good amount of reverb on the vocals. The most upbeat and bright song is the closer “Maybe One Day.” It’s also the most single-worthy song on the EP. This release was a nice blend of familiar alternative rock. The band isn’t pushing the genre past what it has been but the songs are well written and the EP did feel cohesive from beginning to end.
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