After years of working their way through their local scene with EP releases, Cleveland, OH based band Bloodhounds (Grant Santoscoy, Mae Brando, and Massimo Dipierro) has put their debut full-length into the world on June 3. Entitled It’s All The Same Anyway, the project sees the band combining folk, bedroom pop, slowcore, and shoegaze for the ideal record for a sad summer.
The record is introduced by “Bunny Jacofsky Saves The Town From Certain Death,” a fuzzy, amped-up track that sets the tone of introspection that runs rampant on the album (“Draw the blinds in my room / and I don’t think you’ll hear from me soon”). The guitar takes the forefront, almost drowning out the vocals in typical shoegaze fashion, but not enough so to lose the meaning and urgency of the lyrics at hand. On the other hand, the band does more laidback, slacker-pop styled tracks just as well, with “Counting Pineneedles” that highlights missing someone even though they can be pretty unlikeable, constantly talking shit as the song describes.
A highlight of the record is the minimalistic “Doolie,” featuring raw acoustic guitar and sparse vocal moments. It’s a track bound to be overlooked as it’s much softer sounding than what the rest of the record provides. Conversely, the following track, “Glass Eyes,” is perhaps the strongest moment on the album. This one is mosh-ready for any basement in Cleveland and beyond, with guitar and drums taking the lead along with soaring vocals in the chorus.
The record has several truly wowing moments on it that showcase this budding band’s potential, like the strong Duster-esque outro that takes you by surprise at the end of “This Side of Paradise”. Dark, downturned instrumentation is something the band does well, as seen on a track like “Tarot”, where it is the redeeming element against a vocal performance that can be an acquired taste. Lyrically, the band excels at making those minute details feel so significant and weighty. Take “Sundowner” for example, closing out the record with the lines “Last night I had a nightmare I was stuck in school / Tiny paper boxes all across the hall and then the fool / Folding more while kids stomped out the door.”
It’s All The Same Anyway takes you straight to the suburban scene it describes, with small but compelling anecdotes of boredom and monotony in day-to-day life. It’s a summer album in my eyes as it juxtaposes dark and melancholy lyricism with instrumentation that is honestly quite pleasing and engaging. It might be a beautiful day, but the narrator of these songs tends to stay inside with their thoughts instead.
There is definitely a space in the scene for Bloodhounds. They have shown promising talent on their debut LP, which they can continue to run with and fine-tune everything they do from here. It is exciting to think about what this trio will do next, so check out It’s All The Same Anyway, released via Flowerpot Records, and keep your eye on the band.
