Blue Ranger - Saving A Beauty

There are more serious, complex and important new albums that came out this year, but then why do I constantly go back to Blue Ranger’s second release Saving A Beauty? I don’t really care where Josh Marre, the man behind this project has played or is playing at the same time (Pinegrove, Cassandra Jenkins, Onlyness), this album is turning out to be some kind of the best in comfort food or comfort music, if you will, and it just refuses to leave any of the devices I play the music on.

Of course, at this moment nobody can make anything resembling a shortlist of laid back, subtle music that is almost perfect for any time of day or night, but how many of those have intricate, sometimes barely noticeable details that compliment the charms of the songs themselves, like those tinkly bells that take over the ending of the introductory “I’m The Clown?” It is just a detail, but also just a tip of a very large iceberg Marre built here, sometimes matching the laid-back charms of the likes of JJ Cale (the title track, “Ah My”), without even a hint of trying to emulate anybody. Or, how “4-9” suddenly develops into an (almost) full-fledged country tune, without actually being country.

The draw of this album primarily lies in Marre’s capability to have a completely natural flow to his tunes, nothing forced, nothing purposefully dramatic, as if the songs are coming out of nowhere by themselves. The other thing seems to be, that Marre, who is also quite a reading buff has an easy flowing way with lyrics, presenting some hard personal questions in an almost as-a-matter-of-fact way.

The instrumentation and recording of the album (listen closely to the background sounds on “Spots”) which Marre did with his twin brother Evan, plus Kenna Hynes on vocals, fiddle, and piano, Matt Griffin on drums and guitar, Mike Doherty on vocals, completely matches both the music and the lyrics and makes Saving A Beauty one of the most sublime albums of the year. Saving a beauty, indeed.