Blue Bendy is a band, perhaps more than any other, suited to the medium of a long-form project. Their 2022 EP 'Motorbike' offers a taste of the south London six-piece's extremely wide range of sounds across four tracks, and although it was enough to whet your appetite, as the band themselves admit, Also, the number of ideas was a bit claustrophobic. But here they face no such limitations, resulting in an album that enjoys its range. Let's take the two nominal songs “Darp” and “Darp 2/Exorcism” as an example. The former is a rolling, guitar-driven number that progresses with the steady power of rolling waves. The latter is an exponential expansion whose waves eventually break into a moving, cathartic crescendo. Other songs include “The Day I Said You Died (He's Alive)” and “Come On Baby, Dig!” “Cloudy” is a futuristic synthesizer that colors the track with experimental pop colors. “Cloudy” is a six-minute post-rock romp with shimmering keys, harsh guitars, and choral backing vocals.
Lyrically, there's a lot to unravel as well. Grand motifs of gods and humans are punctuated with humor and pop culture (a nod to Kendall Roy in “I'm Sorry, Leave Me Bleed” is a particularly helpful choice), and Arthur. Nolan's vocal delivery ranges from the tongue-in-cheek (“Sunny”) to the eerily confessional (“Mr. Bubblegum,” in particular, features vocals from former Black Country, New Road frontman, (It's imbued with the unvarnished anguish of Isaac Wood). Despite its grandeur and ambition, there's also a sharp intimacy to So Medieval – it's essentially a farewell album – and it's this tonal contrast that keeps the listener on edge. is. The record's expansive, complex arrangements and unpredictable time signatures make it unsuitable for singalongs, but Blue Bendy's debut is well worth the time spent with it.