Blue Flashing Light
The Mayor of Five Points (EP)
Self Released
by Noel Wurst
The cover of Blue Flashing Light’s press kit proudly reads “…it won’t be a surprise if you hear the next BFL song in a Honda commercial.” What? The next song I hear, or the next song the band writes? This threw me off so much; I ended up spending the whole album trying to determine if any of the songs sounded like bona fide automaker advertisement material. As it turns out none of the songs sound like they’d be in a car ad, but outside of the financial gains and exposure, is that a bad thing? Is a Honda ad the pinnacle of “making it” these days? I hope not.
EP’s have always kind of bewildered me. You don’t want to put your best work on them, and then have nothing left to beef up your real album. There’s also not room for fluff when your EP only has six songs and BFL includes a 30 second nonsensical voicemail as a track, which does nothing for anyone. That leaves only five songs to impress people, and to BFL’s credit, it’s not an easy accomplishment, and unfortunately they miss the mark by a considerable amount.
The lead track Tangled Up in You is this band’s biggest chance to get into a commercial if that’s their goal. The song’s pop appeal is heavy handed and a bit overbearing, but so are Coldplay, and 3 Doors Down and loads of other uber-successful pop acts. 20/20 is by far the album’s best track, at times closely resembling Oasis’ early work. The real downers are Cinderella and For Eternity which both sound like James Blunt covering Tenacious D. Ouch.
