The Guy Can Sing
It’s the first time that Guy Blakeslee has made an entrance without the (Entrance) band. Ophelia Slowly finds him on his own for the first time. The result? Heady and extremely well-crafted stuff. You’re looking at a solo album in the truest sense, and the focus is squarely on Blakeslee.
Blakeslee’s vocals stay front and center throughout the album. Every song comes complete with a winding, usually rhyming vocal line – but there’s plenty of variety between tracks. Opener “Haunted City” almost sounds like a Dinosaur Jr. replica at first. Blakeslee’s quavering, almost-off-key warble is an odd start to Ophelia Slowly, but it’s also appropriate. When Blakeslee’s songs click – and they often do – it’s largely thanks to the raw emotionality the guy can inject into his voice. “Haunted City” catches Blakeslee at his most vulnerable, and the repeated pleas of “just leave me alone” have an undeniable, angsty punch behind them.
On the flipside, you’ll find “The Cloud” and “Told Myself.” Blakeslee changes gears effortlessly when he needs to. These later tracks come with none of the uncertainty or doubt of “Haunted City.” And when Blakeslee decides to belt, he belts. “Year of the Dragon” showcases that vocal range and thrives thanks to some potent, insistent singing.
Emotional timbre changes with Blakeslee’s voice, and songs veer from blindly optimistic to relentlessly drab. “Smile On,” predictably, represents the former. It’s a silver-lining sort of song featuring a bit of off-key humor in Blakeslee’s chipper lyrics. You’ll find “City in the Rain” on the opposite end of the spectrum; a painstaking study of a fraying relationship – and a very, very long one. That 8-minute playtime backfires a bit, as the song winds up reaching the bleak point, the numb point, and the boring point in turn. But hey, maybe that’s intentional.
All in all, a solid album. Blakeslee’s penchant for writing heavily repetitive music comes back to bite him on extremely long tracks; however, even these are worth a play. There’s a lot of thought put into this, and even if you’re not feeling analytical, it’s damn pretty to listen to.
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