Saint Pacific – ‘Blue’ [Album Review]

Saint Pacific’s new album, Blue, finds the artist probing the various forms of love – wild…precious…and a few things in between.

Nate Smith, aka Saint Pacific, believes that most artists are struggling poets and reveals his own poetic soul through carefully crafted lyrics over the course of the album, creating milieus simultaneously emotional and thoughtful.

Blue embraces 11 tracks and opens with “Maybe This Time,” a sleazy, growling, bluesy alt-rock number replete with rumbling drums, a scorching, braying organ, and a lusciously swaying rhythm that demands listeners to move their hips. Softly glowing harmonies heighten Saint Pacific’s deep tenor with its seedy timbres. This might be the best track on the album.

Entry points include “Down By The Water,” another down-and-dirty blues rocker. Only this one starts slowly on low-slung guitars oozing unctuous surfaces. Potent female vocal harmonies give the song a grubby gospel-like feel as Saint Pacific imbues the lyrics with pungent energy, big and resonant.

Saint Pacific, photo courtesy of Saint Pacific

The poignant title track features a delectable syncopated, polymetric rhythm topped by lonely, crying vocals. Whereas “Carl Jung,” for some reason, conjures up suggestions of Bruce Springsteen, The Band, and Lynyrd Skynyrd with its blend of Southern rock-lite and tinctures of country blues.

The penultimate track, “Last Kind Words,” exposes the dark emotions of lost love, evoking the turbulence of sensations that won’t subside. The distant atmosphere of the vocals underlines the bleak void between the presence and absence of love, akin to going from heaven to hell.

Blue is a grand album. It sounds heavy, and it is emotionally heavy. Yet it’s also a breath of fresh air, musing on love’s manifestations.

Blue Track Listing:

1. Maybe This Time
2. Down By The Water
3. Found
4. Blue
5. Shimmering
6. Carl Jung
7. Old Man
8. Ten Feet Tall
9. Last Kind Word Blues
10. Make You Feel My Love
11. Let the Rain Fall Down

Run Time: 43:35
Release Date: August 26, 2023
Record Label: Independent