Superbloom - Life's a Blur (2023) Hi-Res

It has been more than 20 years since Jaap Kwakman, Jan Dulles and Jan de Witte Sr founded the Dutch pop, folk and americana band 3JS in Volendam. The band would become not only one of the best representatives of the eel sound, but broadened this concept with a completely different sound than we were used to from this Volendam music scene. Many will still remember their successful debut album Watermensen from 2007 with no fewer than five hit singles, including the beautiful title song. This is followed by more albums and hits. For example, many dreams have come true for the 3JS in the past fifteen to twenty years. Unfortunately, there are also painful memories and they still have wishes that they would like to see fulfilled. What the vision of the 3JS is about all this is beautifully reflected on their new album Beautiful Times

Beautiful Times in its entirety is a Dutch poetic songbook, supplemented and smoothed down to the last detail and perfected with an American producer and session musicians. It was one of the wishes the boys wanted to see come true and they succeeded because recording manager in the studio was none other than the legendary Bob Clearmountain. Famous for his collaborations with David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen and The Rolling Stones, among others. And if that wasn't enough, the backing band consisted of well-known American session musicians such as Sean Hurley, Victor Indrizzo, David Delhomme, Greg Leisz and Davey Chedwiggen. Together with the 3JS, they perform ten beautiful songs on Beautiful Times.

And good times they are. Earlier we were provided with the beautiful single Als Je Haar Ziet and we were already able to ride in De Trein. Both songs already gave away a bit of the common thread that runs through the album. Most of the songs look back at the many memories in their own way. In the lyrics it becomes clear that they want to forget the painful ones and only take the beautiful memories with them to the future. For example, the songs Als Je her Ziet and the title song Beautiful Times are actually farewell songs for loved ones, but they look back at the beautiful moments together. And that's exactly the feeling of the whole album.

Poetically, Beautiful Times contains all emotions. You feel pain, nostalgia and melancholy. You can taste the clear look ahead and understand the positive in the message.

Each song is beautifully constructed. Very nice, for example, is the collaboration between bass and the floaty keyboard part in Beautiful Times. You simply become happy with the cheerful sounding harmonica in Ik Heb M'n Leven Lief. This is also the song that sounds the most americana. Falling and Rising, on the other hand, sounds more like a country song. And the most striking song is the closing song California, which contains a wonderful guitar solo. Furthermore, each song has something that makes it beautiful in its own way.

If you go through the music history of the 3JS, you will see a huge piece of growth for the band with every album. You always think it can't get any better, but then they go the extra mile. This Beautiful Times also feels like 3JS have grown enormously above themselves again. The album is a real pleasure to listen to and perhaps the best they have made so far.