Apricot Blush – Where Blew a Flower, May a Flower No More (Review)

My first encounter with Apricot Blush was a show at Makeout Reef about a year ago. Going into that show I had never heard of them, and I had also never seen a band whip out a singing saw. To be honest, I didn’t even know that a saw could be used as an intrument, but here was this guy I recognized from a Daddy’s Beemer music video doing just that, and doing it well.

It wasn’t just the singing saw that piqued my interest with Apricot Blush. I was also impressed by the emotion that the band pumped into that room. After the show I did my homework and found out that Apricot Blush was part of this budding collective in the upstate that would become known as the Pablo Generation. I listened to their self-titled album containing all the songs I heard that night. From then on I knew that Apricot Blush was a band I needed to keep my eyes on.

Now, Apricot Blush has just released a second full-length album called Where Blew a Flower, May a Flower No More. According to frontman Jackson Wise, the new record is a concept album centered around the mythological story of Sedna that is told by the Inuits.

In the Inuit myth, Sedna is the goddess of the underworld. The myth begins when Sedna, whose fingers were cut off by her father, sinks to the bottom of the ocean and drowns. From her underwater spirit home, Sedna rewards the good behavior of the Eskimos with the flesh of sea animals they need to survive, or punishes their wrongdoings by conjuring storms and hiding the animals outside of their hunting grounds.

Jackson found a special personal connection to the myth of Sedna and the ritual associated with it, in which members of the Inuit tribe who are experiencing hardships seek her forgiveness and thus the return of better times. Citing his personal struggles with vice and substance abuse, Jackson created Where Blew a Flower as his take on addressing problems within himself and the realization that he alone is the root of his problems. Jackson has come to know that he should address his own flaws before picking out the flaws in another person, and has begun a journey of self-awareness and introspection that led him down the path to recording this album.

The dark, sprawling tones featured on Where Blew a Flower place Apricot Blush in similar sonic territory as bands like Foxing, American Football, and The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die. Like the aforementioned bands, Apricot Blush is not concerned with quick delivery but instead takes the time to really wring out the emotion.

The new record has a definitive focus on clean transitions, with each track melting into the start of the next one. Even the most pop-friendly song on the album, “I Can See Your Bones”, has been given this acute attention to detail. This makes Where Blew a Flower a satisfying listen from front to back, and lends itself to the element of storytelling that surrounds the record.

In the interest of paying respect to the Inuit tribe, Apricot Blush has promised to donate 25% of the album’s proceeds to organizations benefitting their remaining members. Dim the lights and press play below. Buy the album on Bandcamp here.