(2021) Colin Blunstone - One Year [50th Anniversary Edition]          


Review:
The 50th Anniversary Edition includes 14 extra songs recorded around the same time, including home demos and studio recordings that didn’t appear on the album. In particular, the stripped-down piano and guitar rendition of “Caroline Goodbye” shows a different angle of the album’s specific downturned beauty. With One Year, his proper debut as a solo artist after the late-’60s dissolution of his ground- breaking band The Zombies, vocalist/songwriter Colin Blunstone turned all of his musical gifts inward. Titled after the span between 1970 and 1971 in which it was slowly recorded, One Year is a gorgeous and subtle document of heavy changes in Blunstone’s life, reflecting on the time directly following the end of his band and a crushing breakup. A palpable melancholy runs through even the most chipper songs, noticeable in the hints of disdain on upbeat lounge rock opener “She Loves the Way They Love Her” before taking center stage when the energy comes down on soft chamber pop numbers like “Misty Roses” and “Though You Are Far Away.” The album is split mostly between these two approaches, with islands of blue-eyed soul like “Mary Won’t You Warm My Bed” and the wistful catchiness of “Caroline Goodbye” separated by long passages of minimal Baroque pop. Some of the most powerful songs are those that present nothing more than spare string arrangements and Blunstone’s aching, whispery vocals. “Smokey Day” somehow achieves a somber kind of psychedelia, with Blunstone’s eerie double-tracked vocal harmonies floating on a cloud of wandering strings. The mood throughout One Year is consistently gentle but never sleepy, as deft construction and sophisticated songwriting make even the most restrained songs captivating. The labored production, detailed composition, and deliberate pace of One Year all cohere to perfectly mirror the emotional upheaval of trying to mend a broken heart. Blunstone’s work with the Zombies produced some of the most inarguably important psychedelic pop of its era, but in its own quiet way, One Year is even more ambitious than the Zombies were at their creative peak. The production alone speaks to this, employing live string players and moving meticulously where limited budgets and recording deadlines only allowed for Mellotron parts to represent the string sounds on the Zombies’ definitive work Odessey and Oracle. Though former Zombies Rod Argent and Chris White have a hand in production and songwriting, the atmosphere here is solitary and reflective, differing from the collaborative excitement that crackled in even the more subdued Zombies material. Marked by a thoughtfulness that’s always on the brink of despair, One Year is an understated masterpiece. It drifts by quickly but connects immediately, capturing the same stir of conflicting feelings as remembering a time that will never happen again, or a romance you wish hadn’t ended quite so soon.





Track Listing:
01. She loves the way love her
02. Misty roses
03. Smokey day
04. Caroline goodbye
05. Though you are far away
06. Mary won't you warm my bed
07. Her song
08. I can't live without you
09. Let me come closer to you
10. Say you don't mind
11. Are you ready
12. I've always had you
13. Sing your own song
14. Caroline goodbye
15. I'd like to get to know you better
16. Though you are far away
17. Too much too soon last night
18. I wonder if you know what you've begun
19. I won't let you down
20. You gave me a reason
21. I'm coming home
22. I really do love you
23. Let me come closer to you
24. You really were a surprise


Media Report:
Genre: pop, soft rock
Country: UK
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits


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