Broadside’s next full length album Hotel Bleu will be released on November 10th 2023. I was lucky enough to be able to listen to the album in it’s entirety before the official release. The album features singles and songs off their latest EP such as “Lucid (ft. Devin Papadol)”, “Cruel (ft. Brian Butcher)”, “Bang (ft. Josh Roberts)”, and “One Last Time”. The full length album features 11 songs which includes 7 currently unreleased songs.
If any of you reading this were already Broadside fans from their previous releases like me, you may have noticed a new sound direction with their latest singles. The band’s new style that has more pop and dance elements to the instrumentals is consistent throughout the new release. Oliver’s signature vocals and lyrics are still the star of the show but the vocals are accompanied by music that is a bit more dance friendly and catchy. By now, I think we are all used to pop-punk bands changing up their sound from album to album and Broadside is no exception with their change in sound. This is not a jarring change, there are elements that make it a seamless transition from older music and existing fans will still enjoy.
I was already a fan of the band before listening to the album but even with the change in their sound, I still enjoy the music. I actually find myself enjoying their new music even more than previous releases (which is actually saying a lot, they were in my top Spotify plays last year) because the sad or touching lyrics are paired with music that makes you want to dance and sing along. Oliver’s song writing is still smart, singing about emotional topics with clever word arrangements and making it sound effortlessly paired with the catchy and upbeat instrumentals. The album ends off with two songs “What Have I Done” and “Bleu” that have a more serious tone and sound more of the band’s last full album Into The Raging Sea. It is the perfect way to end the album as a calm down and gives you a chance to grab some tissues if needed after the ending track “Bleu”.
In conclusion, the sound has been changed up on this album but I do not think this is a negative. I think this is a great example of a band growing and adjusting their sound in a successful way. The difference between the two albums also aligns with the emotions of the world with their release times with the last album being released in 2020. While Into The Raging Sea was the perfect emotional album to occupy our alone time in the pandemic time – the new album Hotel Bleu is the dance party pick-me-up that we all need as we try to recollect our lives during these hard times following the pandemic. Below I am including the album cover and the music video of my favorite song off the album, which is luckily already out. You won’t want to miss this release in November.
