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Review: 'BLIND WILLIES'
'Every Day Is Judgment Day'   

-  Label: 'Diggory Records'
-  Genre: 'Rock' -  Release Date: '2nd February 2015'-  Catalogue No: 'DIGGORY5'

Our Rating:
The primitive cover painting called Liberty, by an anonymous artist, ties in with the album's theme which is explained in the sleeve notes: "All songs are about freedom and whatever the opposite of freedom is, within ourselves and in our relationships with others".

The first two songs strongly allude to the Holocaust and give the false impression that the album as a whole will be a kind of dark cabaret in a Gypsy Punk style.

Cremo Tango is inspired by Tadeusz Borowski's autobiographical story collection about the Polish writer's experiences in Auschwitz , This Way For The Gas, Ladies And Gentleman. 42 Jews grimly catalogues other victims of oppression, past and present.

This is the San Francisco band's fourth full length album. What began as a folk duo has expanded to a quintet led by founder member Alexei Wajchman who sings, plays guitar, banjo and harmonica.

The diversity of their current sound can be gleaned from the fact that the record is dedicated to Pete Seeger, Lou Reed, Maurice Sendak and Irena Sendlar, the Polish nurse and social worker who saved around 2,500 children from being killed by the Nazis.

With instrumentation, which includes cello, trumpet and flute, means that this is far from being a straightforward rock album. Instead it turns out to be something of a curious hybrid which lacks a defining character.

Wajchman is not afraid to take on some dark themes with macabre imagery like that of Potential Bag: "I slept through a storm of envy and greed, And woke up in the belly of a monstrosity".

However, mixed in with the horror stories there is the notion that hope can win through provided you are willing and able to "realign your expectations" (The Possible World).

The human instinct to survive and procreate is addressed directly in the self explanatory I Need A Woman and it all ends with the positively cheery sing-a-long of Big City. The latter is a song which I imagine is popular among the pre-school children Wajchman teaches as his day job.

All in all, the one hour sonic trip begins on a ghost train to hell and ends with a carefree helter skelter ride.

A shorter album might have gelled together better but the point that freedom has many different faces is still effectively conveyed.

Blind Willies' website


  author: Martin Raybould

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BLIND WILLIES - Every Day Is Judgment Day