Parks; Tess: Blood Hot

Tess Parks is a young lady from Toronto who seems to have a memory far longer than her lifespan, for what Blood Hot is, is a homage to all things powered by flowers and psychedelic in a "I'm stoned off me noggin' and you look like a green eyed fairy from hell with bells on your toes" kind of way. In other words it's boring. Well actually that's unfair, it's really boring. So much so that a meandering fug infused wander through its eleven tracks with inspiring titles such as "Refugee Camp", "Stick Around" or "Walk Behind Your House", feels like a three week vacation in quick sand of the slowest, stickiest variety. Forcibly shove the CD in the player (or more ideally the vinyl on the turntable) and life immediately hits slo-mo, or at least the songs do. Crawl, crawl, craaaaaaaaaaawlllllllllllling beats, guitars which barely keep up and the deep in the mix vocals from, the actually rather pleasantly voiced, Parks herself, sit in a drone so morose that you presume the needle has come to rest at the end of the record, endlessly turning in a shtump-hmmmmmmmmm, shtump-hmmmmmmmmm repeat.

Even the cover-art of Blood Hot, which is more like tepid tea, screams in a decidedly lacklustre manner...... this is the sixties maaaaaaaaan.

To be fair some of the guitar from Tess, or Thomas Paxton-Beesley, or Andrew McGill (there's no way of knowing who does what) is intricate and tasty, although played at such a languid pace that you really do hanker to find out if a CD can be spun at 45rpm. While also in defence, I've no doubt that the effect Tess and "The Good People", as they are credited in the booklet, wanted to create is exactly that on this album. However unless you are already medicating with slightly (or largely) more than what the doctor ordered, then I can see little reason for this to even vaguely trouble your day. Unless of course you want it to feel like a month. Or two. Possibly four.

Track Listing
1. Somedays
2. Gates Of Broadway
3. When I Am Young
4. Refugee Camp
5. Stick Around
6. Open Your Mind
7. Walk Behind Your House
8. Goodnight Love
9. This Time Next Year
10. Life Is But A Dream
11. Love Around

Added: April 11th 2014
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Tess Parks on BandCamp
Hits: 2235
Language: english

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