Hello, Blue Roses
The Portrait Is Finished & I Have Failed To Capture Your Beauty...
Release Date: Jan 22, 2008
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Record label: Locust
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Album Review: The Portrait Is Finished & I Have Failed To Capture Your Beauty... by Hello, Blue Roses
Very Good, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Please ignore the nonsensical Tennessee Williams quote of a band name and the pretentious mouthful of the album title, which between them make Hello, Blue Roses' debut album sound like it must be the most emo thing this side of Conor Oberst crying over his lost kitten. Instead, the duo of Sydney Vermont (vocals, lyrics, flute, acoustic guitar, visuals) and Dan Bejar (everything else) shares some influences with and surface similarities to the current "new weird folk" underground, in that it seems like now-hip '60s and '70s acts like Judee Sill, Vashti Bunyan, and the Incredible String Band might be among Vermont and Bejar's influences. ("Heron Song," with its delicate acoustic folk melody and woody flute interjections, is the most obvious nod to the style.
Based on rating 6.0/10
Review by John Motley.
Opinion: Excellent
Hello, Blue Roses is lovebirds Dan Bejar (a.k.a. Destroyer, erstwhile New Pornographer) and visual artist Sydney Vermont, and while there’s no mistaking the extent to which the music they create together is a collaborative effort The Portrait is Finished and I Have Failed to Capture Your Beauty is first and foremost Vermont’s show. She wrote 13 of the album’s 14 tracks (a cover of Kevin Ayers’s “Hymn” being the other) and her voice and acoustic guitar dominates throughout.