We’ve been hearing good things about Bellevue Days for quite a while now and when we saw them at 2000 Trees, we were suitably unpressed. Playing the festival mere days after releasing the ‘Rosehill’ EP, the Croydon four-piece have plenty more exciting gigs in the pipeline – including appearances at Citadel and the Summer Westival in Aldershot before a run of shows with our friends at Rose Coloured’s signings, Patrons and then a short October tour with The Young Hearts.
The follow-up to 2016’s ‘Sad Boy’ EP, the five songs featured here have all been inspired by ‘some of the more shitty times’ in the band members’ lives and it kicks off with ‘Black Sheep Baby’, an angular, emotional and introspective piece with Oceansize-like guitar, visceral lyrics and powerful observations: ‘Can you rest your body on me?’; ‘I’ve got blood on my arms. I hope I don’t scar’; ‘wait for the ambulance to show, it’s easier than being alone’. There are also some delicately poised mathy turns before big wall of guitar closes the song in style.
‘Jack and I’ follows and this appears to be a confession about not wanting to be left out while everyone around you heads into adulthood. However, there’s always the lingering feeling that maybe where you currently are is OK and the view that growing up may well be over-rated… The band first sing about how ‘I’m a little bit scared about the future. Everyone’s growing up or falling apart. I’m sitting here hoping no-one forgets me’ before then going on to explain how ‘It’s just me and Jack hanging in the park’ and ‘We could be hanging out. Instead we’re hanging around’. This is surrounded in grunge-tinged hooks that brought to mind Tigercub. Following this is the altogether more-acoustic ‘Secret Love’, which is a romantic song shredded in self-doubt. There’s a heartfelt poignancy in lyrics like: ‘What have I done? I’m addicted to the rush’ and ‘How can you understand me when I don’t understand myself?’
‘Faith’ brought to mind the Mansun side of Britpop to us and it again has some deep confessions in the lyrics. The singer admits to being weak and needing help but then goes on to explain, with quite some passion, that ‘I don’t need your fath to get me through’. There’s a surprising turn in its final moments as the instrumentation becomes almost waltz-like. Finishing the EP is ‘Dead Summer’, a rousing anthem that touches on everything from the work of the devil to wanting to make more of your life. It finishes with the refrain of ‘I got bad dreams about getting out. I smoke a cigareete and I live in hope you know’, which kind of sums up the uncertainty of when youth becomes something more.
Catch Bellevue Days at the following shows:16.07 – London – Citadel, Victoria Park
22.07 – Aldershot – Westival
03.08 – Birmingham – Sunflower Lounge *
04.08 – Nottingham – The Chameleon Café Bar*
05.08 – London – The Old Blue Last*
04.10 – Southampton – The Brook^
05.10 – Manchester – Retro Bar^
06.10 – Coventry – Kasbah^
07.10 – Bridgwater – The Cobblestones^
08.10 – London – The Old Blue Last^
* with Patrons
^ with The Young Hearts
Filed under: EP review, New music, Preview Tagged: 2000 Trees, Aldershot, alternative music, Bellevue Days, Croydon, EP review, grunge, indie music, new band, new music, pop music, rock music, Rosehill, Westival, YouTube
