It’s been years in the waiting, but Bleu’s dropped-from-the-label third album comes out next month. Back in 2005 he had just finished recording when suddenly his record label decided to fire artists and employees alike in a downsizing.
Thankfully, he decided to gather up some of his friends and recorded an old-fashioned Electric Light Orchestra record. No, really. He studied how Jeff Lynne wrote and produced, got some of his friends who are fans as well and relived the glorious over-the-top 70’s in a band called L.E.O. That collection of music ended up at #5 in my The Year That Was 2006 list.
Now with his label woes — hopefully — behind him, Bleu will be releasing his A Watched Pot from record company purgatory. I was given a chance to listen to the album because of the nice things I said about L.E.O. and so far really like what I’ve heard. While there are a couple of songs that are meant to make teenage girls swoon, there is plenty of meaty stuff as in songs like the wonderfully-titled theme for douches “I Won’t Fuck You Over (This Time)” and the sincere, bitter heartbreak of “No Such Thing As Love”. He also does blues-pop well in the demo-like “What Kind Of Man Am I?”
His management even gave me a couple of the tracks to use, so use I will.
This is the first track on the album and quite a great little pop number. I found this to be the most commercial track on the album with its highs and lows, its killer chorus and its emo-inducing lyrics. Have a listen.
“Save Me”
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The other track they sent me is the aforementioned “No Such Thing As Love”. It’s a powerful song that’s reminiscent of 10cc, Paul Simon and, of course, ELO.
“No Such Thing As Love”
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I’ve waiting several years for this and it’s been worth the wait. Bleu has an extraordinary and very unique voice that is well suited for power pop. The years have obviously been good to A Watched Pot and hopefully it will find the audience it deserves.
I was so happy this song made her album. It was previewed on her MySpace page months before the album’s release and had me in hysterics with its message to homophobes. In fact, several radio stations in Europe starting playing it even though it wasn’t an official single release and it even made #1 in The Netherlands. Now it’s an official single and has a fun little video with it; however, there is an even better French fan-made video made in collaboration the Big Fat Gay Collab. Go figure on the name, eh? Anyway, the fan video is hilarious and below Lily’s official video. Enjoy!
“Fuck You”
France’s BFGC video
Listening to: “Going Thru The Motions” -- Hall & Oates
Their latest is a surprisingly tight little album along the same vein as American Idiot — all protest. “21 Guns” is one of my favorites and is in the much better second half of 21st Century Breakdown. The video is a tad boring, but the chorus pretty much rocks.
One Sentence Review: 
It’s been years in the waiting, but Bleu’s dropped-from-the-label third album comes out next month. Back in 2005 he had just finished recording when suddenly his record label decided to fire artists and employees alike in a downsizing.
