Reviews

Five Blank Pages

Last Blush

Dry Eyes

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Review Date: 2008-01-07

For some of you, this review will be redundant.  Anyone who came out to our show on November 16 already is privy to musical stylings of the catchy Toronto four-piece Five Blank Pages. 

Still, many of you don’t live in Toronto, so I thought I’d let you in on this well kept secret.  Last Blush was released in late October, but because of this writer’s insistence on reviewing it himself, it’s only being covered now. 

This neat little four-piece consists of lead singer/guitarist Noyan Hilmi, his sister and his wife.  Rounding out the quartet is Rajiv Thanathan on bass and synths.  You might think that makes Rajiv the odd man out, but you’d be sorely mistaken. Add to the mix Jose Miguel Contreras of By Divine Right fame’s work on album production, and you have Last Blush. 

The challenge for me -- and perhaps you -- with this record is that Noyan’s vocals tends to be really thin and somewhat nasal, and I used to think that this was him trying to make his voice too pretty.  I’ve since come to believe that this is just his natural singing voice.  At times the record does drag a touch because of the lack of variation in the vocals, but by layering vocals and using unexpected arrangements and instruments, they pull it off.  You can find a great example of that on my personal favourite track “She Sleeps Soundly”, which in the last minute or so layers Noyan’s vocals with his sister or wife (sorry, the liner notes don’t tell me).  They have a knack, shown here, for creating memorable choruses that are poppy -- but not so poppy that repeated listens causes them to go stale. 

They do it again on “We are Fierce Competitors” which demands you get out of your chair.  It’s infectious on record, it’s absolutely lethal live when they can really let loose on it… especially Rajiv.  Seriously though, where are the handclaps?  I know it’s such an obvious play, but I keep having to imagine them being there because they would have worked so well. 

But Five Blank Pages aren’t a one trick pony.  “Marrow” is almost one hundred percent sugar-free, and not in that aspartame substitute sort of way either. The background vocals constantly repeating “safe, safe, safe” almost angelically against Noyan’s vocals create a sort of slowburn intensity that’s hard to resist.  You tend to ignore songwriting on poppier songs -- at least I do -- but not here.  How could you miss it with lyrics like “I saw your face marked with the ‘morrow /  and sinking to your marrow wearing your shame do I feel the same?”  Try thinking about anything else but this song during the five minutes it runs; I doubt you’ll succeed.  It’s a similar story on the brilliantly titled “Great Canadian Winter”.  Most bands would be pleased as punch to be able to write a great dancey-pop song, but to be able to pull off both bodes well for Last Blush and Five Blank Pages in general. 

Lots of local bands it seems make a record just to make a record – it’s refreshing to see a band go and record who clearly are comfortable enough with the material to make a record to be proud of.

Score: 8.2

Side note: Five Blank Pages recently announced that they’ll be undergoing a line-up change. Their last show with the current set-up will be at The Horseshoe on Saturday February 2, with The Junction and The Ghost is Dancing.

- Dan