Things are getting away from me. Usually this would’ve been written on a Sunday night as I avoided the humanistic idea of sleep, but I had to get to bed early and I still woke up late on Monday. I won’t go into details about how I needed to go get in line for Backstreet Boys Walk of Fame ceremony, but I will let you know I cried and am currently experiencing a natural high from happiness. So after trying and failing to meet them, I went home and sat with tired eyes and listened to Roxanne de Bastion’s The Real Thing. After hearing the first single a couple months ago, it wasn’t exactly what I expected.
When I first heard “Red And White Blood Cells,” I remember thinking that it was as if Juno kept on singing with Paulie Bleeker and their band went beyond their porch steps. The upbeat yet quirky sound was just what I needed that day and continues to be one of my favorites to listen to as the whole album plays on. The rest of The Real Thing played on a softer level than the lead single. Songs like “The Real Thing” and “Here’s Tom with the Weather” are prime examples of that. Songs like that were sculpted well, but just weren’t hitting that musical spot in my heart.
Some others did though. I have six different people’s handwriting tattooed on my body and that’s the main reason my ears wanted “Handwriting” to continue on. The other song I’d note on a personal level is “Some kind of Creature.” Here it was the lyrics and the fear of death that caught me and didn’t let go. Roxanne is a girl that has this innocent outer shell, but crack that open and it releases songs like this; songs inhabiting a depth of perception on life.
I’d like to retire my eyes right now, but there’s still so much to do to play catch up for today. Before I go write about Adventure Time and Star Wars, I want you to know that you can’t judge a whole album by the first single because you might not get 12 more of that one song, but if you take a chance there might be some you do like for different reasons. I did that with Roxanne de Bastion and it paid off a bit. If you like artists like Catlow and Ingrid Michaelson, then you’ll want to check out The Real Thing, out now.
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