Album Review: The Blanks – Yellow Fading Glimmer

The Blanks are back, they originally released two bedroom albums, and recorded with garage rock royalty producer Jim Diamond, before calling it quits in 2005, over the next decade they would still find themselves together sporadically in various garages and dive bars along the West Coast. Before they knew it they had accumulated more new songs than they knew what to do with, the band made their way back into the studio and recorded an album of new material at Rarefied Recording in San Diego, the result of which is, Yellow Fading Glimmer, The Blanks first album in thirteen years, that will be released on July 6th.

Yellow Fading Glimmer kicks in with the twisted riff of One Thing I Know, a track that embraces everything from garage and psychedelia to the indie cool of the Pixies, this is followed by High On It, a track that bursts into life with a riff straight from the Velvet Underground. The Blanks have crafted an album of laid back lo-fi indie psyche, each track on the album brings another facet into view, but all the time it evokes the spirit of the outsiders who have left an indelible imprint on the music scene over the last five decades.

It’s good to have The Blanks back again, this is an album that embraces the left field side of the indie and garage scenes, you can everyone from Dinosaur Jr. and the aforementioned Pixies to Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers and Lou Reed, and even Country Joe And The Fish, echoing within The Blanks latest release. This is an album that has a unique laid back hazy charm that you just can’t help falling under the spell of, comeback albums, especially after such a lengthy hiatus, can be something of a lottery, but with Yellow Fading Glimmer it’s like The Blanks have never been away.

Yellow Fading Glimmer can be pre-ordered here