Lorne Behrman - Blue Love (2024)

If you long for Lou Reed’s New York, you’ll find more than enough hooks to draw a good mood out of you in Lorne Behrman‘s new solo album Blue Love. The singer-songwriter (previously in The Dimestore Haloes, L.E.S. Stitches, The Dead Tricks, and The Sweet Things) rises above himself in eleven original tracks that are fun the first time you listen to them, fascinating the second time around, and impossible to get out of your head after the third time. The artist paints NYC vignettes haunted by shadows but guided by light – central theme is holding two opposite emotions at the same time (“There are some great times in shitty times”) – and we also hear interesting doubles lyrically (blue love and green eyes) and musically (punk rock with smooth 70s grocery store music: “Yacht-punk”). The songs are short (only one exceeds the 3-minute mark), but there’s a lot going on: talk-sung street poetry within a loose but vibrant environment created by a bunch of great musicians*, who incorporate doo-wop and post-punk influences as easily as they add catchy harmony vocals, a rhythmic cowbell or cheerful whistling. New York cool is back in an extraordinary way.