Blue Nation - The Ordinary People (2024) Hi-Res

Blue Nation is a superb band. Let’s get that out of the way before we say anything else.

MV is a Birmingham-based site, so it’s fair to say we’ve reviewed them as much as any other band over the last few years—it’s also fair to say they’ve never disappointed.

Which brings us to “Ordinary People.” Three years of work have gone into these songs. Three years of growth.

And if every band says this (I long for the day when I get a press release that says, “we don’t think this is as good as our other stuff, but it’ll do”), “Hand Me Down” is a reasonable insight into this brave new world.

The grooves are bigger, and everything has gone up a notch.

Blue Nation believe in these songs too. If you’ve seen them play live recently, then you’ve seen Neil, Luke, and Oli playing these. “Every Single Time” shows Neil’s range as a singer, “I Feel Low” would offer Rival Sons a Grammy if they stole it, but the skill here is in the subtleties.

“Time Is A Thief” might best underline it. On one hand, a slow-building ballad, on the other, you try and get the thing out of your head once the chorus hits.

Likewise, “Strangers.” They are brilliant at intro grooves, these three. And this one is a stunner, and even more importantly, perhaps, this band means so much to them all that you can’t escape it. These songs matter. You sense work like “Old Friends” comes from somewhere deep inside, and “Echoes” definitely does.

Recently, it’s formed almost the centrepiece of their shows, and it’s not hard to understand why. Luke’s struggles with mental health are part of their shows; this one is raw and beautiful. Maybe those of us who have been saved by music can feel it?

13 songs. As if to destroy this myth about the death of the album. And 13 different vibes, as if to show their abilities, from Neil’s falsetto on “The Reason” to the urgency of “Once In My Life,” which, like “Come Back Home,” dispenses with an intro as if bursting to get out.

The title song—which they dedicate to the “ordinary people who are fans and friends”—has that working-class ethic that the band will never lose, which contrasts superbly with the fragility of the verses on “Run Straight Ahead.”

By the time they get to the chorus there, with its Eastern influences, they are asking, “Why do you care what anyone thinks?” And maybe there’s a bit of devil-may-care here, but equally, Blue Nation are desperate not to let people down.

Most assuredly, though, as it ends with the gentle, inclusive folk of “Worry,” “Ordinary People” has done no such thing.

They’ve been playing for years, and they’ve always been better than a band on the local “scene.” All of that ability, but also their empathy, has come bursting forth on this, which is the best thing they’ve ever done.