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Indie band’s debut not so picturesque

It would be comforting to know that a band with dedicated fans and a successful album would be able to stay together long enough to create more records. Sadly, that’s not always the case. For the band Blue Merle, who achieved moderate success with their 2005 hit “Burning in the Sun,” things just didn’t work out, and the band members did what nearly every member of a failed band does: They went solo.

Luke Reynolds, former frontman of Blue Merle, graces the airwaves again as Pictures and Sound with his recently released album of the same title. On this first solo attempt, Reynolds experiments with musical styles and mixes dozens of instruments to get his new sound. However, as is well-known, experiments can often go badly, and this one does.

Reynolds has received well-deserved recognition for playing more than a dozen instruments on the album including pedal steel, keyboards, marching drum and vibes. The instruments are all well-played, but combining them often caused the vocals to be overwhelmed. As a result, the lyrics were lost in an abyss and had no impact on their listener.

The two singles creating the most buzz off the album, “Forever to Reach” and “It’s You,” don’t do anything to make themselves stand out; they not only blend in because of their generic lyrics (“Forever to reach you/ And a moment to pass”), but their rhythm and beats blend in with all the other indie-pop music on the radio.

Unlike many of the album’s songs, the lyrics themselves actually stand out — but only for being thoughtless and barren. “Space Between Lines” gives us the lyrics “No one tells a bird to fly/ They just jump/ And spread their wings/ They fly south every winter/ And come back in the spring.” The song offers little more than immature lyrics which come across as emotionless and cold.

There are, of course, other songs on the album that are more creative and adventuresome in their sound styles, but they aren’t cohesive with the rest of the record. “Every War,” which features Willie Nelson of all people, gives listeners more of an alt-country sound. It has an upbeat tone and light-hearted aura, but it’s shocking to hear this song played next to the rest of the album’s songs. Reynolds created a pleasing song for Willie Nelson to play on, just not a song for this album.

The best way to describe the overall impression of Pictures and Sound’s first album is by comparing it to the strange music played over the speakers before a concert. Hardly anyone has ever heard the music, and it’s almost always the exact opposite genre of the music you want to hear. The music is just there for background noise, and just like this album, it’s easy to ignore. In the end, Pictures and Sound leaves no lasting impact on its audience.

2 stars out of 5