Blessed

The dictionary definition of Circuitous, the upcoming second LP from Canadian band Blessed, is “very Blessed methodology,” says singer and guitarist Drew Riekman. He recites: “Of a route or journey, longer than the most direct way.”

This sounds glib, but it’s also a description of a profound and rare way of creating that makes Circuitous (pronounced ser-cue-ih-tiss), like all previous Blessed releases, a singular, moving, and unsettlingly committed piece of work. Circuitous cements and expands on Blessed’s status as a band’s band: a patient, eclectic career outfit guided by reverence for and an intense pursuit of an internally-dictated creative agenda on musicality, songwriting, performance, and artistic growth.

Blessed's sophomore release, “Circuitous”, cements and expands on their status as a band’s band: a patient, eclectic career outfit guided by the intense pursuit of an internally-dictated creative agenda. Here, the group has sharpened their strengths, bringing an ever-growing depth of songwriting and artistic evolution to their craft.

Composed from hours of jam material and hundreds of demos, “Circuitous” comprises eight tracks that sprawl and thrash and burst and fall — a sweeping, hyperreal, industrial art-rock tragedy rendered in walls of noise, controlled drums, meandering ambience, and staccato syncopation. The record speaks on agoraphobia, isolation, grief, the hyper-control of capital and the numbness it breeds.