Blindside – The Great Depression

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The twentieth anniversary of the fifth studio album by Blindside is coming up this weekend, so it’s time to revisit The Great Depression. The album was largely influenced by a trip to Africa that their lead singer, Christian Lindskog, which left the singer “unsettled” by his experience and the things he saw vastly influenced the direction of the record. The LP also found Blindside going with an independent label, after the moderate commercial success of Silence and About a Burning Fire, and deciding to work with a different producer as well in Lasse Mårtén. While I felt the pairing of the previous two records with veteran producer, Howard Benson, was a match made in music heaven for Blindside, The Great Depression is truly an “artist’s record” in that the band was beginning to see the world through a much different lens. The set would spawn two singles in “Fell In Love With The Game” and the reflective “When I Remember,” but had trouble gaining traction commercially. The album is still adored by many Blindside fans to this day, and it’s easy to see why after a fresh listen. The Great Depression marked a significant shift in Blindside’s artistic direction, and left hints as to where they would take their sound on subsequent releases.

After a brief spoken-word intro of the title track, Blindside gets into a comfortable groove on “This is a Heart Attack” that features a repetitious opening riff from guitarist Simon Grenehed, while Christian explodes in the chorus of, “We’re at war / Realize this is a heart attack / One nation under at attack / Heart is frozen but it’s ready to crack.” Hmm, sounds pretty relevant in today’s political environment as well. The song adds in some electronic elements in the bridge/instrumental breakdown, that Blindside would lean even further into as the LP unfolds. “Ask Me Now” begins with an eerie bass-line from Tomas Näslund, while drummer Marcus Dahlström adds in some pretty interesting fills behind Christian’s vocals, if you listen carefully. The song sounds the closest to what Blindside went for on Silence/About a Burning Fire, so it made sense to have this early in the sequencing.

”We’re All Going To Die” features an abrasive-sounding guitar tone that is reminiscent of the style found on Blindside’s 2000 record called A Thought Crushed My Mind. Christian offers the haunting lyrics in the chorus of, “We’re all going to die / But we’re all not meant to die young,” as he further reflects on his visit to Africa. Christian delivers an all-time vocal performance on this song that hits its intended tone. “Yamkela” was a song that was written about a person whom Christian met in South Africa, named Yemkela, who Christian expected would be dead based on his earlier experiences, until the two were reunited at a concert in Cape Town. The visceral delivery of “But I feel gun powder / Burning under my skin / Don’t say another word / You might set off a spark,” is still timely and relevant today’s world of endless wars.

The semi-ballad of “Put Back the Stars” features some lo-fi guitar tones, while Christian delivers another great vocal performance over Simon’s intricate riffing. The lead single of “Fell In Love With The Game” finds Blindside at their most accessible, and was an easy choice of a song to represent the first “taste” of The Great Depression’s direction. “City Lights” settles back into an eerie groove that helps with the overall aesthetic of the cover art, while “We Are To Follow” offers lyrics like, “The TV dies more and more for each day / And the beauty of your eyes (in my hand) / Makes the flashing lights behind me on the wall look even more pale / Four o’clock and the sky is getting red / And here I am, just me waiting / Waiting for the sun to come out,” that showcased the depth that Christian and his bandmates went into with their lyrics and songwriting.

”You Must Be Bleeding Under Your Eyelids” is a haunting mid-tempo track that ultimately fell a little short of my initial expectations of an uplifting chorus after the dramatic build-up in the dual-verse opening. The coolest song on the entire record comes in the form of “My Alibi” as Christian spits out some vivid lyrical imagery in the form of some spoken word poetry in the verses, while he sings brilliantly on the chorus of, “When all is said and done / When all is gone and still just begun / I will be asked what I did with my time and why / Can you be my alibi? / Cause I know I spent it dancing with you.” The track gets turned on its head in the electronica breakdown that turns the song into a club anthem. I thought it was a really cool way of conveying the raw emotion of the song, and it never feels clumsy in its delivery.

”Come To Rest (Hesychia)” begins with some heavy riffing, while the initial drumbeat by Marcus reminded me a lot of Fall Out Boy’s classic song of “Dance, Dance.” The visceral vocals/screaming from Christian plus a cameo from Ilkka Viitasalo of the band Benea Reach makes for a cool way of adding in some new voices to the overall package that is The Great Depression. “This Time” may just be my favorite “deep cut” from Blindside’s entire discography, as the mid-tempo track has a little bit of everything in it. Christian’s vulnerable vocals throughout the song mesh well with the tone set by the backing band and instrumental sections, while Christian leans deep into his faith in the bridge of, “We had an intimate talk / With God, you and I / Me with my words and you in silence / All you said was “I like that” / But I saw Jesus in your eyes…” The song has a certain magic to it, and it’s hauntingly beautiful.

The album closer of “When I Remember” gets back to the steady riffing from Simon, while Christian ends this fifth chapter in the book of Blindside with the vivid lyrical imagery of, “A cloud moves in, rain falls, thunder strikes / And sunshine breaks through the clouds / I can cry out of sorrow and joy / Every drop of rain turns into a crystal in the sun / So wash my eyes, my clothes, my skin, my bones, my soul / My feet, my love / I’m not forgotten / I’m in your thoughts cause I feel sunshine in the rain.” You can feel the pain that Christian felt through his experiences in South Africa, and unfortunately, many of these same real-world issues are prevalent today. Blindside may not have broken through commercially on The Great Depression, but the album’s overall feeling of despair and hopelessness may have led some music fans to stray away from the band. Blindside would find a happy medium between all of their styles on their next record, 2011’s With Shivering Hearts We Wait, and the band appears poised to have an even bigger comeback next year with their hotly-anticipated, yet to be titled, seventh studio album.

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