August 29, 2007

Blue States

First Steps Into

5 / 10 The fourth album from purveyor of swoonsome, delicate downtempo pop, Andy Dragazis, finds the artist at a crossroads. After dabbling with a full band on 2004’s ‘The Soundings’, he’s on his tod again. There’s no one to ask for help and the album cover shows a solitary figure walking away from the camera towards some distant light. One listen to ‘First Steps Into...’ suggests Dragazis has done what anyone would do – what he likes. The result is a pleasant, unthreatening, and for the most part unremarkable collection of instrumental pop songs. It works best on the traditional chillout structure of ‘100s And 1,000s’ and ‘Look To Your Laurels’. But the stock sound is a diluted mid-tempo ’60s soundtrack style – the wee small hours sound of ‘The Electric Compliment’ being typical. Nice is a nasty word, but that’s the path Blue States have taken.

Stephen Worthy

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