The Road To Recovery is an improvement over Bellevue’s first album entitled “Lost In Space”. Now don’t go thinking that Lost In Space isn’t worth picking up at your music store - because it is; but I prefer this album a little bit more. What I like about Bellevue’s songs the most is the fact that they are all easy to sing along to.

The members of Bellevue that played on The Road to Recovery are Dan Snyder on Bass Guitar, Percussion and Harmony Vocals, Jordan Bruce on Drums, Percussion, Harmony Vocals and Acoustic Guitar and the Synth, David Cyr on guitar, Percussion and Harmony Vocals, and finally founding member Brent Hough on Guitar Lead Vocals and Keys.

The Road To Recovery still boasts Bellevue’s distinct moody pop/rock Indie sound. To me it is the vocals that puts the mood into their music. Each song on the album can be divided into two different columns when you consider the mood aspect of the songs. First you have the cheerful instrumental and for the most part semi energetic aspect, then when the Brent adds his vocals they appear to contain a deeper and a melodramatic sound.

“I’ve Been Meaning To Get Therapy” starts off The Road To Recovery on a good note. This song is probably my favourite song off the album. This song has the more cheerful feeling to it than the other tracks. The engineering teams gets a thumbs up on the recorded vocals in this song. The opening guitar lick is a little different and snags your attention. The guitars in the song is the definite backbone to the song, I found myself tending to listen more to the guitars/bass throughout the song. The Keys in this track were a nice touch to the overall sound of the song. They filled what would have been a void in the song very nicely. 

“Friendship” keeps the energy of the album from the first song going. The starting is a little slow but the drum beat and guitar keeps the rhythm going. For the most part the song is a little quieter and contains a bit more of a pop sound. “Friendship” in all is a simple and easy listening song, compared to most of the tracks on the album. Sometimes the simpler the song is the better the song is and this song is a example of that. The song doesn’t get to busy with the keys and drums, instruments that can take away from the song’s dexterity. 

The seventh song on the album entitled “I’ve Got A Song” has a nice catchy starting rhythm. The rhythm almost has a country beat sound to it, but it is catchy non the less. I would have been happy just listening to the rhythm and vocals throughout the song, the song however takes a couple of different turns in tempo and sound. The song speeds up and down during the different verses. “I’ve Got A Song” has parts that I tended to like and also dislike. The sections that I tended not to the like the most was the instrumental break about three quarters of the way through the song and the ensuing verse that followed. I just didn’t like how the tempo slowed right down, the song kind of took a “Joe Downer” type of spin. The song however saved itself by finishing in a stronger fashion being followed with the dissipating keys.

www.bellevuemusic.ca
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Matt Hartwick 
m.hartwick@partyinkingston.com