Color You
The Grand Trine
(self-released)

L.A.’s Color You has just released The Grand Trine. Opening with the title track, which is just a snippet of movie dialogue and wind sound effects, we are quickly into the jangly “In Tune.” The harmonies here work very well (guitar player Theodore Eckhardt, as well as bassist Brian Han sing here) and the guys seem to know how to lay back in service to a tune. I like how Han’s simple but effective bass thrumping basically roams forward on the heavier track “Empty” with its slicing guitar choruses, where again we get good use of harmony vocals in the verses and “ooos” and “woos.” “Empty”‘s ending is almost Ramones-like, dare I say, and by the time we have Drew Stutz snapping his rimshot at the last verse and things explode again into the cutting metallic chorus, you are singing along. “Lady In Blue” is a big driving number, with heavy power chords moving, those sing-songy lead vocals from Ben Ross echoing in a big splash-back effect, while a strummed acoustic mainly drives “Again Again,” the tune that ends The Grand Trine. The big sweeping strings here create the perfect bed for Ross to sound about the sweetest he can across the whole album. I think Color You has lots to say on The Grand Trine, and mostly when they can get slightly ahead of their cleverness, they do say it well.