Blaudzun sings more than ever as if his life depended on it ★★★★☆

Look at the cover of the new Blaudzun album: a roller coaster, that’s fun and excitement, but first Lonely City Exit Wounds it is also a menacing skeleton, deserted against the sky.

That’s the feeling the album evokes. Blaudzun’s sixth studio album is a portrait of the (universal) big city, with all its individual stories and emotions, but let it be precisely The City that came to an oppressive standstill halfway through the writing process of the album.

Lonely City Exit Wounds is not a ‘corona record’ (most of the songs were finished when the virus showed up), but the few that do deal with the claustrophobia of the pandemic (save me) round off the story nicely.

Loneliness, longing, despair. Flight, healing, hope. It is Blaudzun’s permanent palette, in exceptionally good hands with him: slightly edifying, but also urban. Sigmond is singing more than ever as if his life depended on it.

What gives the album extra expressiveness is that the songs often sound powerful, upbeat, sometimes treacherously cheerful and that along the way some of his most hit-sensitive songs pass by: Closer, Real Hero – and there is always a hopeful view (wide open).

Lonely City Exit Wounds is one of Blaudzun’s best, an album that can help, like a friend in bad times.