Blended Brew – ‘Roll The Dice’

(Mighty Music)

Danish trio Blended Brew lead by Jimmy Mansson have dusted off some oldies and given them a polish for their latest album ‘Roll The Dice’. This album is a collection of songs which didn’t make the cut for their debut album released over a decade ago. Lost of bands have done this over the years and what you get is usually very underwhelming with most people mumbling as intriguing as it initially was it’s easy to see why these songs never got released in the first place.

I’ll be honest ‘Roll The Dice’ doesn’t feel like that, if I didn’t know the story behind the album, I would have said this is a decent album and not thought twice about it. So, either these songs have been well developed and improved over the decade since their inception or the bands debut is an absolute killer! Either way I’ll be digging deeper into the band as I enjoyed this batch of songs well enough to want to hear more, especially if these are the cut-offs!

These tracks are laid back atmospheric blues rock with a modern feel regardless of the retro influences present in the song writing. I hear elements of Bruce Springsteen and Jon Butler Trio in the mix and they have a very Americanised sound which makes me think of bands like The Gaslight Anthem.

Mansson has a great gritty blues infused voice and he delivers some great guitar licks, he is a supreme talent and if you give this album a proper listen, you’ll hear this for yourself. He has crafted a very thoughtful and emotive blues rock album designed to give you the feels. It’s laid-back nature which generates some really captivating atmospherics strengthens the emotive punch of the songs and this really appeals to me.

‘Roll The Dice’ is a decent album and I’d heartily recommend it to blues rockers to hear it out. Personally, though I don’t think it has the impact to leave a lasting impression on me its one of those albums that I’ll play for a few months and then it’ll get lost in my collection and forgotten about. It just doesn’t have the punch to make it a classic with me, but with the musicianship on display here I’m confident others will embrace these songs extremely warmly and thoroughly enjoy the Brew! It’s good but not a classic!

7/10

Essential Track - 'Burning Soul'

Review by Woody