Entrance
Book Of Changes

THE REVIEW

Guy Blakeslee aka Entrance this time has crafted a singer-songwriter album of captivating and unexpected beauty that wins you over more and more with each listen.

Born in 1981 in Baltimore, United States, Blakeslee has a long resume as a musician, having started his career as a member of psych projects like The Convocation Of and The Entrance Band since 1998.

To tell the truth, Entrance also started as a psych-inspired project. But that was more than ten years ago.

Until the release of 'Prayer Of Death' (Tee Pee Records) in 2006.

This album, 'Book Of Changes', is something completely different.

Preceded by an EP, 'Promises', also released on Thrill Jockey Records last year, 'Book Of Changes' was recorded by Guy with the multi-instrumentalist David Vandervelde (long-time collaborator of Father John Misty) at Elliott Smith's New Monkey Studios in Van Nuys, California, and it's an album with which Guy Blakeslee demonstrates with great strength and compositional ability how much he believes in the importance of 'songs'.

Because 'Book Of Changes' is exactly an album of songs. An album of beautiful songs arranged in a simple yet elegant and emotionally engaging manner, where the compositional sensitivity of the author is particularly highlighted as well as his great qualities as a performer.

Ultimately, a singer-songwriter I would associate more in terms of sensitivity and style rather than with more overexposed artists like Father John Misty or Jonathan Wilson, Fleet Foxes, with Mr 'Boogie Christ' Joseph Arthur, especially in certain ballads like 'Always The Right Time', 'The Avenue', 'Leaving California', and the beautiful and sensitive 'Revolution Eyes'.

Particularly interesting, as mentioned, are the arrangements that look towards a certain indie folk psychedelic singer-songwriter style like John Grant, Foxygen, or more stylish and dramatically sensitive like Scott Matthew or Antony & The Johnsons.

Fundamental is the use of strings in songs like 'Always The Right Time' or 'I'd Be a Fool', characterized by a certain 1980s aftertaste almost like Cindy Lauper or Boy George, which, however, does not constitute a continuum or a constant in the album.

Also discernible is a certain Leonard Cohen sacredness ('Summer's Child') and the typical sixties Lennon-McCartney fascination in songs like 'Molly' ('Eleanor Rigby', 'The Long and Winding Road'...) and 'Winter Lady'.

The truth is that it might seem easy to get lost in all these references, seemingly so different and distant from each other, but the fact is that in this case, we are truly faced with a songwriter as sensitive and talented as capable of offering, I wouldn't say something innovative, but certainly something authentic and representative in contemporary pop music that is 'original' because it is unique and singular in its beauty.