OTR: Blue October - Foiled

[illusionofjoy]

To me "You Make Me Smile" sounds more like a closing song than an opener, however Blue October opens their third album, Foiled with the song. Not a bad way to start at all, but my intuition would placed it at the finish of the album, rather than the start. "She's My Ride Home" would have stayed at track two, while I'd have opened with "Into The Ocean," which is the third track.

Sequence nit-picking aside, Foiled is a very strong album, enough so that I became interested in the band again after passing on History For Sale (even though that album's lead single "Calling You" became a hit, and I've heard it, I'm still hard-pressed to remember the song). After "lackluster" sales of Blue October's major-label début, Consent To Treatment, Universal dropped the band. In response, they signed to independent label Brando and, from what I've read, produced a "fuck you" to Universal in the form of History For Sale in 2003. Apparently "Calling You" was a big enough success that Universal re-signed the band to record Foiled, which was released in the Spring of 2006. Funny thing, the music business...

It was the single, "Hate Me" which piqued my interest in Foiled. Much like Blue October's other work, the song deals with lead vocalist Justin Furstenfeld's inner demons, but the twist here is that the topic of the song revolves around how those demons affected others - and how others tried to help quell those demons, but are no longer around to do so. "Hate Me" is a song about loss, but also subversively optimistic in the gratitude expressed for the kindness shown before their departure.

The single edit of "Hate Me" ends cold (with a slight trailing fade, for all you DJs out there), however the album version segues directly into "Let It Go." Played back to back, they make for a wonderful two-part ten-minute song; tragedy followed by mourning.

Imogen Heap makes an appearance on the album, doing backing vocals for "Congratulations." It sounds very much like the Kate Bush/Peter Gabriel combo on "Don't Give Up" or the R.E.M./Patti Smith combo on "E-bow The Letter." In other words: divine.

Word has it that Blue October is working on a new disc - if it maintains the trajectory of Foiled, I look forward to it. I'll likely add History For Sale to my collection eventually, if for no other reason than completeness.