One Track Mind

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After releasing a pair of EPs over the past two years, Denver, Colorado’s Flashbulb Fires are ready to unleash their debut full-length, Glory, on December 15th. The album, which was recorded this past winter in a home the quartet converted into a studio, is both intimate and ornate, its ambitious arrangements engilding simple, beautiful melodies. Upon Glory‘s release, the band will embark on a tour of the midwest and southwest to introduce new fans to their bold, idiosyncratic sound.

“Ambulance” is one of two songs the band has made available free of charge in advance of the album’s release and is a nice crystallization of Flashbulb Fires’ strength as songwriters and performers. Its opening is straightforward and lovely, with finger picked acoustic guitar and the sleepy murmurs of a pedal steel setting the stage for group vocal harmonies and the softened patter of brushed drums. However, what begins with a mellow jangle soon turns into a gaseous, amorphous fog as the beat falls out from underneath and Flashbulb Fires stretch out in a dreamy interlude. Piano, xylophone, and horns are folded into one another in a wondrous haze and then, again without warning, the peppiness of the first verse is reprised.

Vocalist Patrick McGuire has a comfortable timbre that gives his singing an earnestness without ever tipping into twee excess, and his lyrics are vibrant throughout (“I see them standing in the parking lot, blessing the passing cars / and when that ambulance comes those kids all scatter”). With “Ambulance,” Flashbulb Fires have recorded a track that feels instinctively in balance with every element in the right place and in the proper proportion. Its melodies are memorable, its tone whimsical, and especially for a first LP, its poise is strong.