Repeat after me: Keep hope alive.
Keep hope alive because life, according to Gabriel Blue, is “a sunlight letter” filled with melodic harmonies radiating through a vintage sound of ’60s surf pop, western ballads and ’80s punk from the days of Minor Threat.
On their second album, “The Runaway Sun,” Eugene band Gabriel Blue keeps the mood mellow and light with airy guitar riffs and beautifully textured songs such as “700 Singers,” which features a gospel choir. The music glasses over to “Sister Sheena,” a rolling rock song of a confused nun.
The entire album is lit with youth and songs of life, friends and love. On “USA Dowry,” a picture of content friends “around the fire and the beach and the sea” sends you back to the days of grass shacks and California beach boys strumming songs on their imported ukuleles. Gabriel Blue has reached a content place between rock and pop, melancholy and future.
“The Runaway Sun” also features pleasing harmonies that weave in and out of each song, which leave the album wide open to the possibilities in life that are sung of in songs such as “Summer Shirt.” The four-piece band plays the usual rock instruments, including drums and guitars, but combines the subtle sounds of the piano, accordion and various brass horns to give certain songs a jazzy flavor.
“Late Night Television” is a fun, happy story of a restless man up watching late-night TV. Mixed with sounds of television shows, the song leads into a slow, wandering western ballad about watching nighttime programs. This song is one of the highlights of the album, showing the band’s willingness to take chances while being able to keep pop rock undertones. “Late Night Television” transitions to “Dirty Christian Money,” an energetic, frantic punk song, which is completely different from any other song on the album. However, the contrast between these two songs is amazing and adds to Gabriel Blue’s experiments in genre.
“Old Man” is another highlight on the album, mixing the beat of a Grateful Dead song and the harmonies of a Beach Boys song. “Old Man” is also characteristic of the kind of lyrics found on “The Runaway Sun.” A typical life filled with ups and downs is painted here with lyrics such as, “I was just a young man; I could see beyond the sky/I was just an old man when they laid me down.”
However, the pop/rock combination does not work on every song. “Lucky” begins with a beautifully textured, pop surf sound, but then transitions to harder rock that is not as interesting or catchy as the introduction. After the introduction, you expect a continuation of the surf sound, but what you get is a somewhat disorganized rock song that doesn’t deliver the same light-hearted feeling. “Lucky” does contain some of the harmonies that characterize the majority of “The Runaway Sun,” but it just doesn’t work as well as other songs, such as “Summer Shirt” or “Airport in Indonesia,” which both contain the same harmony-driven surf melodies.
The best songs on “The Runaway Sun” come at the end of the album. “A Sunlight Letter” is a flowing, peaceful ballad that ends the album with a fluid instrumental.
“The Runaway Sun” is a refreshing album of relaxed, fluid songs and youthful lyrics, which combine to make Gabriel Blue a band to watch out for in the future.