Blue Sky Goodbye – Look On The Bright Side / 2003 Uprising Records / 10 Tracks / http://www.blueskygoodbye.com / http://www.uprisingrecords.com / Released 12 August 2003 / Reviewed 21 October 2003

Much more rough and scruffy than I imagined, Blue Sky Goodbye is a band that I’ve heard a lot about but never actually bothered to listen to. A harder-edged type of popcore punk than their fellow labelmates Sleep Comes Down, Blue Sky Goodbye nevertheless makes a good song that is not just all fluff. In tracks such as “Cover Your Eyes”, dissonance is used in multi-part singing and guitar work to make the track all that more memorable. Just like Sleep Comes Down, Blue Sky Goodbye needs to curb their tendency to go about and lapse into utterly forgettable guitar lines at times – a song like “Autumn Bloom”, which is probably the best on the disc, loses something in this lapse. While Reid’s vocals sound like very early Goo Goo Dolls (1986-1993), they still have a little while to go before they are putting out ground shaking albums.

The drumming during most of the CD is just as a backup to the guitar, instead of striking out on new territory. In fact, the drumming is just the most visible example of this. While there are flashes of originality, the rest of the disc seems just as a lead-up or a come down for these lines. Blue Sky Goodbye plays that style of music that is incredibly catchy, influenced by Weezer and Green Day (especially Green Day, as many of the guitar lines seem modified from those found on Dookie or Insomniac). Not a Christian band in any sense, Blue Sky Goodbye still reminds me of those “punk” Christian acts in the sense that there are messages hidden throughout their music that are threaded through a large amount of filler guitar lines and drum fills.

Still, Blue Sky Goodbye is fighting the good fight, and making some tracks that are infectious. If an individual is looking for technical experimentation, Blue Sky Goodbye may not be the type of band they are looking for. There are some very high points during the disc, especially the hopping bass line in “Effigy is the Best Way to Burn”, which rivals anything that Victor Wooten or Matt Freeman could come up with. In a time when vocal, as well as musical conformity is the way to become famous, Reid’s voice, tempered by years of being in a hardcore band, is a refreshing sound to hear.

Top Tracks : Cover Your Eyes, Autumn Bloom