The latest LP from the Stockport, Manchester natives, ‘Foolish Loving Spaces,’ is out now.
Since forming in 2013, Blossoms have polished their indie-pop sound across three albums. The five-piece British group just dropped their latest, Foolish Loving Spaces, on Jan. 31, with 10 new tracks including the lead single "Your Girlfriend."
Despite still being in their twenties (the group's ages range from 22 to 28), the Blossoms guys — lead singer Tom Ogden, keyboardist Myles Kellock, pedal steel/lead guitarist Josh Dewhurst, drummer Joe Donovan and bassist Charlie Salt — have a classic musical style that's reminiscent of vintage rock sounds from the '70s and '80s. But that's no coincidence: According to the group, that's where a lot of their inspiration comes from.
Blossoms shared a playlist of songs that inspired Foolish Loving Spaces, which just debuted at No. 1 on the Official UK Albums chart. The 10-song list includes the likes of Talking Heads, Rod Stewart, Blondie and Gary Numan.
But as a younger group on the international music scene, Blossoms isn't all about the oldies. The playlist also includes some more contemporary artists, including indie rockers The Strokes and dream-pop singer-songwriter Alexandra Savior.
Check out the full playlist of Foolish Loving Spaces inspirations below, as well as some comments from each member about how the songs influenced certain tracks on the album.
Charlie
Alan Braxe, "Intro": "My Uncle was quite a credible disc-jockey in the late '90s/early noughties British slang for the 2000s], playing lots of funky-house, Balearic stuff, you know. He was living at my grandparents during this period and used to practice his vinyl sets in the garage at one end of the house. Me being the inquisitive kid, I often found myself sat on the floor of the garage, watching him do his thing. This particular track has always stuck with me and the bass in particular is an evident inspiration on our album track 'Oh No (I Think I’m In Love).'"
Rod Stewart, "Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?": "This is a track that’s been in my sub-conscious since I was very young. What a title! I remember borrowing the bassline for the verses of our track 'Sunday Was A Friend Of Mine' and upon first listen, my dad said to me (assumingly displeased), 'You can’t do that! It’s a direct rip.' It’s now been immortalised on record. Cheers, Rod!"
Josh
Alexandra Savior, "Mystery Girl": "Heavy Alex Turner flavours across the whole album, which inspired some ideas on the baritone guitar, particularly the country/film soundtrack style."
David Gates, "Chain Me": "Clever blend of acoustic and electric guitars with '70s harmony cheese and classic songwriting."
Tom
Talking Heads, "This Must Be The Place": "I became obsessed with Talking Heads during 2018, which then became the main inspiration musically when writing this album. This song in particular stuck with me and has since become one of my favourite ever songs, the groove and vibe influenced our track 'Your Girlfriend.'"
Ceramic Animal, "Dreams Via Memories": "I saw this band play in NYC in January 2018, and instantly was hooked. I really love the guitar sounds on this track. I spent the rest of the trip listening to this band, then got home and wrote ‘My Swimming Brain,’ which was the first song I wrote for this album!"
The Strokes, "You Only Live Once": "I was listening to this song when I wrote 'Sunday Was A Friend Of Mine.' I’d never really wrote anything with a kind of Strokes guitar sound, so this was new ground for me."
Joe
Talking Heads, "Girlfriend is Better": "When Tom came to us with the song ‘Your Girlfriend,’ he mentioned Talking Heads as a reference. So we sat in the room and put a few Talking Heads songs on, and this one stood out to us and influenced how the drum and percussion should sound."
Myles
Blondie, "Heart of Glass": "The arpeggio in 'Heart of Glass' inspired the arpeggio synth on 'If You Think This Is Real Life.' We were making the demo to the tune, and there was a bit of space between the main chords in intro and chorus, so the arp was kind of a way to fill the gaps. We got up the OB-6 an analog synthesizer], picked a boss sound, synced up the BPM and hit the ARP button, and it worked from the get go. We then thought it would be cool to get the guitar to double it up with same rhythm as it and it was boss."
Gary Numan, "Cars": "We were in the studio recording 'My Swimming Brain' and got the Moog One another synthesizer] out and started playing with some sounds for later on in the song. We found this kind of saxophone sound, but it sounded a bit too clean, so we flicked through the effects and come across a flanger that kind of made it wobble. It reminded me of the end of 'Cars,' where the same synth comes in doing the harmony counter melody with a similar effect on it."
