Blue Merle
- Burning in the Sun
By Gary Schwind
My first impression of Blue Merle is that
their vocalist, Luke Reynolds sounds almost exactly like Chris Martin of
Coldplay. Not bad, right? The unfortunate thing is, as they
say, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
There is some good stuff on this album.
All five musicians are very talented, particularly Reynolds who sings,
plays guitar, organ and piano. Reynolds is a talented songwriter
who writes songs as poetic as Tim Booth of James and Fran Healy of Travis.
Also, I like the non-standard instrumentation. In addition to guitar,
bass and drums, Blue Merle incorporates mandolin and fiddle into their
lineup. The fiddle and mandolin give the band a nice rootsy sound.
“Lucky to Know You” and “Seeing Through You” are beautiful. In fact,
every song on this album is melodic and nicely arranged.
But I just can’t get past the similarity
to Coldplay. It’s one thing to have traces of a band in your sound.
It’s quite another to sound just like another band, and that is where Blue
Merle falters. If you played Coldplay and Blue Merle back-to-back,
I’m not sure I’d be able to tell the difference.
CD Info
Blue Merle
- Burning in the Sun
Label: Island
Records
Rating:  
Tracks:
1. Burning In The Sun
2. If I Could
3. Lucky To Know You
4. Stay
5. Every Ship Must Sail Away
6. Boxcar Racer
7. Made To Run
8. Seeing Through You
10. Places
11. Part Of Your History
12. Either Way It Goes
13. Bittersweet Memory
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