Stop Light Observations released their fifth single of the year, “bLUE.,” on Thursday. The track follows “smooth little operator,” which came out in early September.
“bLUE.” is a sadder track, standing out against the band’s recent releases with its downtempo beat. Will Blackburn’s vocals are light and breezy, dancing up and down the scales, with tingly keys adding punctuation to the words of heartbreak, a guitar meandering along.
The pace picks up in the chorus before quickly slowing down to a crawl, allowing Blackburn to put extra emphasis on the words “it’s all blue.”
Then vocals build up strength and soul for the another important line, “There’s nobody like you.” The beat is easy going but somehow self-effacing, like a humble, downcast shrug of the shoulders.