Bellevue is a four piece band is based out of Toronto Ontario. The members in Bellevue consist of Dan Snyder on Bass Guitar, Julie Kendall on Keyboards, Jordan Bruce on Drums and Brent Hough on Lead Guitar who is originally from Kingston. 

What I found interesting on this album is that the band wasn’t afraid to mix up different sounds in each of the songs, meaning that they didn’t stick to the same tempo and not one really specific sound coming out of the speakers. A couple of the songs are heavy on the keyboards and some are heavy on the guitars. 

My favourite song off of the album which unfortunately is the shortest song on the album is “These Blues”. I would say it is a more pop oriented song from the band. What catches me first about the song is the opening acoustic guitar, it is a simple chord song but sometimes the simpler the music is the better. It is really a song that you can tap your toes along with, but not one that you would really sing along, there is also a catchy “ooooewooooooo” (to some extent of that, not sure on the specific spelling) that grabs the attention of your listening ears. I found the keyboards were a nice added touch to the song; along with the drums they didn’t overshadow the acoustics in the song. 

I wasn’t too fond of the first song called “I’m No Telescope”. The song is almost a down feeling type of song. The vocals are off key with the music and don’t really fit well into the song. I would have placed the song near the end of the album, because when you first listen to the album you immediately think that the entire album will sound like this song. All the instruments in the song do not really go well with each other it is almost like each member is doing their own solo throughout the song. 

“Smile” luckily picks up the album. The song is based heavily on the higher key keyboards and a deep bass tone. Not forgetting to mention the richly deep vocals coming from Brent. The vocals are almost too deep and heavy in “Smile” because you have to really listen to what he is saying to catch it. To go along with the keyboards I might have tried to bring the vocals up a couple of keys. 

“Keep The Kid” is a good example of experimenting with their sound. The vocals somewhat drag on throughout the song keeping with the down feeling, but then you have the sound of the bass drum that keep a steady speed that compliments the simple acoustic guitar picking. The song I find eventually does rely on the deep bass guitar sound. The heavy bass guitar somewhat reminds me of new country style of music. 

Now “K.C Thugs” brings you to think that there is not style of music that the bands didn’t really incorporate when they brought together their influences. A band called the “Golden Dogs” really comes to my mind when I hear this song. I am also finding in “K.C Thugs” that there is also a light hint of new alternative punk in this song. If I had to choose my second favourite song off of the album this would be the song that I would pick. The song really stretches out lot of different styles of music that is blended together to make the song a whole. There is the opening Rock style guitar lick at the start which then goes into a pop style of keyboards. There is also the Golden Dogs style of vocals near the end of the song. I think I would have put this song near the middle of the album, but in keeping the song at the end of the album you finish off the album on a good note. 

www.bellevuemusic.ca
www.myspace.com/mybellevue

Matt Hartwick 
m.hartwick@partyinkingston.com