The Dig - Bloodshot Tokyo

The Dig
Bloodshot Tokyo
2017
Spotify

The Dig feel like a band out of time. Not one specific time though their light pop sound will call to memory the 60s and 70s, but a band that sort of takes into account history when writing. What do I mean? Well this new record Bloodshot Tokyo has a point of view that is modern in it's approach, yet the instrumentation bounces around the history of music. All the sounds eventually land within the band's psychedelic pop sound, but you can pick up little elements from everywhere. The arrangements on the record are in a word fantastic. "Astronaut" is lush and totally different from what you are used to musically almost getting to that Animal Collective point, but never going full weird. That however leads us to one of the major issues with this album and the band as a whole, their lyrics. Singers Emile Mossari and David Baldwin work together to create the vocals, but they really do miss the mark. At times they sound to earnest when the music is light, or when they sound light the music has some depth. If this was straight instrumentals it may be all the more enjoyable, but these lyrics feel so base level and the vocals just never really come together. "Bleeding Heart (You Are the One)" is the one time where the vocals do seem to connect, but the moment is brief and fleeting.

The flow of the album is really well down making transitions track to track feel almost seamless. The progression the band takes you on serves them really well allowing the album to be big where it needs to be but does not sacrifice on the overall vision. Love is the main theme on Bloodshot Tokyo, hard to miss when the majority of the tracks have the word in the title, and it wears a little thin as the tracks wear on. The Dig aren't really giving you a new take or have something novel to say about love, instead the words feel generic. The real enjoyable hooks come from the music rather than the lyrics, and there are very few points where you even find yourself wanting to sing along. It is almost as if the music took shape first and the lyrics were used just because they had to be. "Reaction to Love" is under a minute and more of a jam out sesh than anything else. In the end there are good and bad parts to Bloodshot Tokyo but some of their ideas are the beginnings of something really cool. Unfortunately those things never fully come together here, yet there is something.

5.9 out of 10