Exceptional Failures – Bluest Of Blue

“Bluest Of Blue” is the latest offering by Exceptional Failures, a Portland, Oregon-based alternative rock duo. It’s their third track this year, serving as an adequate follow-up of “Too Long” and “Cherry Mist,” another two outstanding songs you should check out as soon as possible. Perhaps Exceptional Failures embrace the fundamental elements of modern alternative rock music, but they also incorporate many additional sonic ingredients, borrowed from complementary music genres like stoner, garage, psych, and classic rock ‘n’ roll. These experimentations with many subgenres of rock music resulted in a rich and luxurious sound that will appeal to anyone even remotely interested in rock. Still, they’re not another regular alternative rock outfit you’re stumbling upon every day on social media and streaming platforms. Quite the contrary, Exceptional Failures sounds innovative, fresh, and unique thanks to careful planning, brilliant ideas, exceptional musicianship, and a genuine sense for arranging catchy, hypnotic, addictive, heavy rock ‘n’ roll songs. Maybe their sound levitates towards modern rock music, but you’ll also notice some nostalgic sounds of the nineties, eighties, and seventies music.

As soon as you press play, you’ll notice that the Exceptional Failures are not joking around with their music. Perhaps “Bluest Of Blue” commences with the calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal, psychedelic acoustic guitar dualities, but they gradually introduce much heavier and deeper sound, delivered by the thick layers of raw, abrasive, fuzzy chord progressions and riffs. A notable addition of studio reverb and vibrato makes these guitar maneuvers even more intricate, but you’ll unquestionably stumble upon many other guitar effects along the way. The interplay between rhythm and lead guitars offers complexity and a pleasant listening experience. As you dig deeper into this track, you’ll notice how the mentioned heavy riffs shine on one side, while the other side provides a thick layer of themes, leads, melodies, and harmonies. These guitar dualities are the heaviest weaponry in the Exceptional Failures’ arsenal. It’s also good to mention that these instrumentations act as a perfect backdrop for the marvelous vocal performance. Highly skilled vocalist commands attention by balancing low, mid, and high notes, but also emphasizes all the segments and instrumentations. It’s nearly mindblowing how vocals and guitars match during the entire composition. Also, you’ll be pleasantly surprised how these folks switch from calmer to aggressive moments and vice versa.

You’ll also notice how the equally intricate, vividly hearable, warm-sounding basslines roar right beneath the guitar layers, providing more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth while simultaneously binding guitars and drums together. The drumming is another feature worth mentioning, as the robust, complex, well-accentuated beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics dictate groove and tempo with such precision and finesse. Exceptional Failures thought about everything and their latest track shines with some of the best ideas and musicianship you’ll hear on the contemporary alternative rock scene. The experience, knowledge, skills, and talent invested in it will blow you away. You should put these folks on your radar as soon as possible. The song is available on all streaming platforms. Don’t miss it!