Chase Down Blue - ​Red Five

​Chase Down Blue

​Red Five
​self-released; 2017

4.0 out of 5

By Steven Signorelli

After three years of working together and gaining the attention of Zenith City Music Collective, Chase Down Blue have developed a unique but familiar style. Red Five is calm enough to feel comfortable in the background, and complex enough to just sit and listen to.

​In May, the band will be doing a midwest tour. Starting in Duluth, MN, They'll be heading through Milwaukee, Chicago, Kansas city and to Omaha to finish it out. They're also putting the finishing touches on another record. 

​The continuity through the first half of the album was unbelievable. The first track “I Wont Forget to See” was an airy intro full of dreamlike ambience. The empty space being filled in with a soft fuzz that serves as sonic foreshadowing for the follow up song “Radio Fuzz.” With its soundscape of layers and pulsing bass line, this is not one to disappoint. The bass smooths out toward the end of the song, which serves as a great transition into the next track.

“Blue Forever” is almost begging for love and rejection at the same time. The overall sound is reminiscent of a more ambient and mellow Silversun Pickups with touches of Indy punk vocals, much like Cage the Elephant or Conner Oberst. The musical foreshadowing continues here in the backing vocals. There's a mellow dissonance by using some extended chords that warns of a much looser and jazzier section up ahead.

And toward the end, you hear Micah Tigner softly sing the phrase, "I don't expect you to answer when I'm drunk and need some loving." Of course, in what I'd come to expect at this point, it was a tip of the hat to the next song titled “Drunk Dial Death.”

Knowing that Tigner carried over a couple songs from his last project, something not uncommon, explains the break in all of these tie-ins to other parts of the album. I wanted to find those hidden gems throughout the listen. Red Five starts very calm and eases into a very surreal atmosphere. There's a lull for a couple of songs in the middle and the energy picks up at the end. The disconnect between the first and second halves give it a vibe like it's two separate albums. 

Other than the fall off in an incredibly impressive link from song to song, there are very small balancing issues in the sound. For example, in “Dreamcatcher” the guitar tone is very harsh and sits on top of the rest of the band. As soon as the solo kicks in, it sinks lower into the mix and fits perfectly. That might just be an aesthetic opinion though.

​There is a lot of potential with Chase Down Blue and I'm excited to hear what they come out with next. Recommended

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