| Page 1 2 UNEARTHED: COLIN BLUNSTONE - ONE YEAR by Mark Pittman  
Released: 1971 1. She Loves The Way They Love Her 2. Misty Roses 3. Smokey Day 4. Caroline, Goodbye 5. Though You Are Far Away 6. Mary Won’t you Warm My Bed 7. Her Song 8. I Can’t Live Without You 9. Let Me Come Closer To You 10. Say You Don’t Mind Perhaps best known as lead singer of the Zombies, Colin Blunstone actually began working as an insurance clerk after the Zombies called it quits at the end of 1967. To anyone familiar with the singer of “She’s Not There,” “Tell Her No,” and “Time Of The Season” this seems ludicrous: someone with Blunstone’s talent sitting behind a desk? Gradually, however, Blunstone did re-enter the music industry, first with a successful cover of his old band’s hit “She’s Not There” released under the name Neil MacArthur and eventually with a solo album under his own name, One Year. (Released in 1971, One Year’s title refers to the length of time Blunstone spent recording the album with his ex-bandmates Rod Argent and Chris White.) The easiest thing to do when listening to One Year is simply to indulge yourself with one of popular music’s best voices. Though the album’s song arrangements may occasionally sound dated (though more often they sound delicate and even haunting), Blunstone’s voice is always there to enjoy. Most of the album’s lyrics follow established, love song clichés. But it doesn’t matter. With his singing, Blunstone makes you forget about lyrical depth and originality. Listening to One Year, you’ll probably end up thinking at some point, “Well, if I have to hear this junk, he might as well be singing it!” In fact, One Year is such a vocal showcase, I often wonder when listening to it what makes a great voice, especially a great pop music voice. Rock singers need distinctive voices to be successful: think Johnny Rotten, Perry Ferrell, Kurt Cobain. Pop singers don’t require distinctiveness as much as a strong technique and vocal beauty. I would categorize Neil Finn of Crowded House, Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, and a few others as perfect pop singers. But do any of them truly sound distinctive? It’s hard to think of anyone offhand other than Colin Blunstone who has his technique and vocal beauty combined into such an easily identifiable sound. In Blunstone’s work with the Zombies, I hear at least two different voices: his “breathy” voice, the one we hear on “She’s Not There,” and his “full” voice—less distinctive than the other—that he uses on many of his other Zombies recordings. On One Year Blunstone uses his breathy voice almost exclusively. This accentuates the hushed beauty of the quieter songs—the majority of the albums’ songs—while lending the album’s more rock-oriented material a mysteriousness it normally wouldn’t possess. One Year begins with a fairly commercial—and fairly dated sounding—rock song (“She Loves the Way They Love Her”) consisting of piano, drums, electric guitar, etc. Normally, after this first song we would expect the rest of the album to be a straightforward, good times, 70s hard rock record. But then the next song, “Misty Roses,” has in its arrangement only Blunstone’s vocals and a calypso guitar accompaniment, in the tradition of an Astrud Gilberto number. Later, a string quartet replaces the guitar accompaniment, playing what sounds like an attempt at early 20th-century British string quartet music. It’s not perfect; as they say in the Classical music magazines, the strings sound “undernourished” at times, but it’s a pleasant sound, regardless. (There’s a later BBC recording of “Misty Roses,” available on the Colin Blunstone album On Air, that contains perhaps the most beautiful vocal performance I have ever heard. I’m not exaggerating.) Surprisingly, for a voice relying on such a breathy tone, Blunstone’s voice never sounds weak. From song to song on One Year, we’re never worried that Blunstone’s vocals are going to disappear through lack of power. Even within the limits of the one vocal style, Blunstone adjusts his voice’s tone to accommodate each song. Listening to “Smokey Day,” the album’s third song, this is especially evident. On this track Blunstone sounds…well, “smokey.” Perhaps it’s unimportant, even asinine, to mention this but “Smokey Day” is also the album’s one song where Blunstone sounds disturbingly similar to another singer: Sade. I can’t say that hearing a man sing in a voice similar to Sade’s is exactly comforting (too comforting, perhaps?), but it does make for very interesting listening. (And, Sade, if you haven’t covered “Smokey Day” yet, you need to. It’s a very pretty song and even the title sounds right!) Page 1 2 |  |
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