Deep Blue Something

Home (1995)

Thoughts Before Listening

Scott

I know nothing about Deep Blue Something. I’m aware of their hit, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, and that’s literally it. A little bit of research tells me that they have four full length releases but never came close to rediscovering the success of their one hit. I’m going into the album with no expectations. Here we go!

Weh-Ming

I think I’m going to like this album. The song is from smack dab in the middle of my real musical formative years, and I always associate it with the show Friends.

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Other Songs of Note

“Done” – 2 points

Scott (1 points)

We’re rising out of the bland morass.  This one has more life than the three songs preceding it.  This has energy!  I’m not sure it’s great, but at least it doesn’t sound like elevator music.

Weh-Ming (1 points)

The music is good, but I’m not sure that I approve of the message? Yeah… I don’t think this has aged well.  But it is catchy.

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“Gammer Gerten`s Needle“

Scott (3 points)

An instrumental! It’s got a definite chilled out Smashing Pumpkins vibe, especially in the ethereal lead guitar sound. If this is a sign of things to come, I’m encouraged! I like it.

Weh-Ming Comment

I have 100% heard this instrumental before, but I cannot for the life of me remember where. But kicking off the album with an instrumental is a little edgy. Oh, wait, Veronica Mars? Maybe? Can someone please help me?

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“Home“

Weh-Ming (2 points)

I like this one just cause I like the imagery and it gave me a feeling. Not sure exactly what that feeling is, but in comparison to the rest of the album it’s something.

Scott Comment

I found this unforgivably lyrically dull. There’s no poetry in it at all. “And then it would rain, like it sometimes does…” I can see what they were shooting for but this is not good writing. The music is fine – not great, but serviceable – but the lyrics are just weak.

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“Red Light“

Scott (2 points)

This is in a run of manic songs. This one’s still manic, but there’s some pop punk going on here and some really good bass playing.  I think I like it enough for points.

Weh-Ming Comment

Meh. I guess I liked the trains at the start? But it didn’t grab me.

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Final Thoughts

Scott

This was a really weird listen for me.  The album is not great – the One Hit is by far the standout track.  This wasn’t punch-you-in-the-face bad, but it was… weird.  The first half of the album was super bland.  The second half of the album was, for the most part, incredibly manic.  I don’t just mean they upped the tempo a bit – for a three or four song run, it honestly felt like I’d left my turntable set to 45rpm on accident, when the record was a normal LP (33rpm).  Except I was streaming it.  It was a very odd choice, and it didn’t work for me.

There were also quite a few songs that I felt were let down by the lyrics and/or the singing.  His voice is serviceable, but not great.  And the lyrics just are not good – the meter is off, the rhyme scheme is off, there is no poetry in them whatsoever and on top of that I stumbled onto an odd writing crutch while slogging through my first listen.  There are a couple “I said…”  “She said…” lines in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.  I noticed them in another song, and then another.  There are 30 (!) instances of “I/She/We say/said…” in the lyrics of this album.  That is, in short, too many.  

Did I enjoy my time with Deep Blue Something?  Not particularly, no.  It wasn’t terrible.  It just wasn’t, well, very good.

Weh-Ming

I was wrong. This was just… not great.

As it turns out, this is not the same band that sang the theme song for Friends, which makes sense because then they’d be a two hit wonder.

There isn’t anything on this album that I loved. It’s fine but it didn’t grab me.

The entire album is full of songs that don’t stick, like Blind Melon was for me. If it was playing in the background of a party or at a bar, I would be happy with it. It’s music you can hear without having to listen to it, if that makes sense.

If they were playing a live show in the bar you happened to be at, you’d dutifully applaud at the end of each song. But you wouldn’t cheer until they did “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” as an encore, then you’d turn to your friends and say “They were good, but why didn’t they do the theme song to Friends?”

I wouldn’t recommend it, but I can understand if you were a fan.

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Yeah But What Else

Scott

Down the Rabbit Hole (Additional songs inspired by listening to this album.)

So the key word in the above is “inspired”. Nothing in this album inspired me to do anything except to listen to better music. And so, here are four songs/artists with Blue in their names that are objectively better than anything this album has to offer.

Blue Rodeo – “Hasn’t Hit Me Yet” – One of Canada’s greats. This song is brilliant and wonderful and as close as I get to listening to country music.

New Order – “Blue Monday” – This ‘83 dance classic is one of my favourites. It’s also (trivia time!) the best selling 12” single of all time.

Blue Öyster Cult – “Don’t Fear the Reaper” – I got a fever.

Bob Dylan – “Tangled up in Blue” – The opener from Blood on the Tracks. Ahhhh, now this is songwriting.

Weh-Ming

Weird Al has never done a Deep Blue Something parody, and I’m okay with that.