Night and Blur, the second album from The Bilinda Butchers, arrives May 8, 2020. Based on the first two singles, it’s shaping up to be a good one.
Throughout their discography, The Bilinda Butchers have crafted a delicate and euphoric dream pop sound with glistening keyboards, bright guitar melodies and gently cooing vocals. Being named after a member of My Bloody Valentine definitely helped garner some initial attention, but the quality material is what maintained it.
According to the band’s website, the new album sees the band maintain its dream pop leanings, but also ventures into new directions of trip hop and drum and bass. In a video on their YouTube channel in which they discussed the two new songs, “See ya” is more indicative of the overall sound. It is a woeful goodbye to a former love carried by a busy breakbeat sprinting though pink clouds of a shining sadness.
“Rie”, differs with verses carried by acoustic guitar that swell into longing and expansive instrumental hooks. In the same video, the band talks about the interesting backstory behind the song. It’s one they sat on for a while, written as a half joke when a friend, named Rie, in another band blocked the group on Myspace. They transform the trivial loss of disappearing from someone’s top 8 into a dramatically evocative call for forgiveness, which is just as much a demonstration of their superb songwriting as it is their sense of humour. The B side of the single includes the original demo of the song that was written when the members were about 17 years old. It’s raw, with just a voice, guitar, and click track, but maintains the core sentiment and serves as a insightful reference to how the song has been transformed over the years with the addition of instruments and changes to the chord progressions.
Listen to “Rie” and “See ya” below and preorder the album here. If you’re wanting to dive deeper into the The Bilinda Butchers catalog, I recommend starting with the Regret, Love, Guilt, Dreams EP released in 2011.