Blood Red Shoes: New Album & Single

Blood Red Shoes know you don’t need a whole string section to denote ‘emotional’, or a whole horn section to do ‘rousing’. They know rock music doesn’t need to be smothered in effects or laced with devious studio tricks to make an impact. There is another way, a way to make music that really resonates. It involves boiling songs down to their essence – just raw guitar riffs and drum hits presented crisp and unadorned.

"Fire Like This" is both a progression and a paring down, a record that sees Blood Red Shoes – vocalist/guitarist Laura-Mary Carter and vocalist/drummer Steven Ansell – getting back to their DIY/punk roots. Like its predecessor, 2008’s bright, propulsive "Box Of Secrets", it was recorded with producer Mike Crossey, using the facilities of his new Liverpool studio The Motor Museum. This time, though, things would be different. Recording to analogue tape with the bare minimum of guitar or vocal overdubs, Blood Red Shoes’ second album slices away a lot of the gloss in favour of a gutsy, raw and more intense sound. 

Intensity is the word. "Fire Like This" is simply exceptional rock music, steeped in a knowledge of your alt-rock staples – Nirvana, Babes In Toyland, Drive Like Jehu – but with its own fingerprint. ‘Don’t Ask’ and ‘Count Me Out’ harness scything guitars and loud-quiet dynamics like they never went out of fashion. But there’s more ambitious fare here, too. Take dramatic seven-minute closer ‘Colours Fade’, originally released as a free download from their website– or the tender, fraught ‘When We Wake’, a sombre mediation on mortality that nonetheless burns with hot emotional force. “In the end is this all we can ask for?” breathes Laura-Mary, as Steven’s drums patter with a quiet intensity.

This is not your typical rock fare, but Blood Red Shoes thrive on such paradox. This, remember, is a band just as comfortable supporting Rage Against The Machine in front of 30,000 Parisians as they are rocking up at a benefit gig for Shelter or Love Music Hate Racism just because, you know, it matters.

The bulk of the Brighton duos second album was road-tested and honed on long tours throughout 2008 and 2009, tours plotted with an ambition and persistence that would shame many of Blood Red Shoes’ British peers. It’s also won them an international fanbase that’s the envy of their contemporaries. 

Steven Ansell says of their sophomore album: 

Blood Red Shoes will tour their second album this March, dates in support of the release are below. 

The single ‘Light It Up’ will be released a week prior to ‘Fire Like This’ on February 22nd. 

02 - Birmingham, 02 Academy 3 

03 - Nottingham, Rescue Rooms

04 - Bristol, Thekla 

05 - Brighton, Komedia 

06 - Leeds, Cockpit 

08 - Edinburgh, Electric Circus 

09 - Dundee, Doghouse 

10 - Glasgow, King Tuts 

11 - Newcastle, 02 Academy 2 

12 - Manchester, Academy 3 

13 - London, Garage

www.bloodredshoes.co.uk