Bad Flamingo - “Devil and the Deep Blue”
The very first time we heard Bad Flamingo, we fell under their sonic spell– and it is no secret that we have long accused them of being sirens whose mission is to seduce our ships into the jagged rocks of heartache and misery. Their latest release, “Devil and the Deep Blue,” does nothing but provide further evidence of this. And the title alone alludes to the idea that they are fully aware of it– the power that they possess over the souls of all who listen.
What you are reading is the moral equivalent of a music review that is being written at gunpoint, with our hearts and minds held hostage as the song puts these very words into our mouths. The gentle percussion and bass groove at the beginning of “Devil and the Deep Blue” will lead the listener to visualize the hot and dry heat of the desert– the vocals coming in as though a mirage, promising to quench some sort of eternal, existential thirst. It is quite maddening and if you listen carefully, you can hear the distant screams from the mortals they’ve trapped inside of their sound. The guitar work is just as intricately spaghetti-western-esque as their previous offerings and those delightfully mysterious vocal harmonies are sprinkled throughout– never overdone, and quite easily one of our favorite tools that they utilize.
Bad Flamingo are steadily writing the soundtrack to the type of film that cannot exist without its music. In fact, we would not be surprised to discover some sort of mad scientist working to develop a screenplay with the sole purpose of highlighting their oeuvre. This music is equal parts Quentin Tarantino and Sergio Leone and, once again, we are warning you not to press play– instead, please pay the ransom so that they might set us free.
-TM