While clocking in at barely under an hour, the Blusterfields’ II is really a double album of sorts. Separated into two blocks of songs, they are two separate entities. The first block of songs are unashamedly ROCK and roll with elements of the Blusterfields’ pop sound, but shows the band dipping into other styles, like rockabilly (Scraptown), sludgy metalism (Beautiful Lies), garage rock (Bad Penny) and swinging blues-infused pop (Henry’s Swing Club), slash and burn punk (Not in Denial) and blistering melodic hard rock for the rest: Apropos of Nothing, Johnny Paycheck, It’s A Tricky Thing & International.

The second block leans more toward the jangling indie pop the Blusterfields presented on their first record, 2022’s The Vicious Afterglow but never strays too far from the rock feel of the first set. Songs like Tool Belt and Cautionary Tail have some often oblique lyrical references while tracks like Fear of Depths, Into The Light and Breakdown are classic pop songs with more direct themes and soaring earworm melodies. Better Angels is the Blusterfields’ first foray into ballads and it’s a sugary confection that is equal parts personal and bombastic. Pleasure Garden is the other slow-ish song on II but with deep psychedelic roots and slyly humorous lyrics. Agent 0 was released as a single in 2022 and a remixed version of this paean to a superhero/superspy that exists in the Blusterfields Universe.

FIRST BLOCK
Apropos of Nothing - Blusterfields rock bombast with some heavy riffage, a floating chorus and a quirky arrangement. The title speaks for itself.

Bad Penny - Equal parts janglepop and throaty garage rock, a song about a coin, or maybe a girl named Penny, or maybe a coin named Lincoln. Who knows? Really, A little 60’s vibe with some 90’s college rock and Y2K garage rock.

Not In Denial - 1977 era punk with some ridiculously tight rhythmic elements. Funny, but mildly menacing lyrics and a guitar solo that is wah wah pedal-soaked abandon. Original title: Anatomy of an Argument.

Johnny Paycheck - A barn-burning rock track that shows the Blusterfields rocking at their most fierce. A song about walking away from your day job forever.

Beautiful Lies - The Blusterfields are not metal guys... At all. However, they do a mighty good impression of sludgy doom/ stoner metal here. Based on a riff brought in by Mike Nicholson that was just an experiment to see if he could write a metal song, Todd Jones-Jones jumped onto it and laced it with a catchy pop melody and some anti-metal lyrics about insecurity and the not-so-secretly fragile male ego, but not his. Supposedly.

Scraptown - There’s a valley in southwestern Virginia where drinking, fighting and Jesus are the favorite weekend activities. This is a thrashing slice of psychobilly that hits all the right notes and still emerges as a pop song somehow.

Henry’s Swing Club - A disturbing little tale of a deviant sex club Ponzi scheme set to a swinging and shuffling groove with a mildly disturbing guitar break that outlines the dark seduction of the tune.

It’s a Tricky Thing - Stomping rock anthem with an insistent riff and lyrics about the tightrope act that is interpersonal relations and clashing egos.

International - A rocking anthem that touches on the subject of those people you once knew and where they are now. A bit neo-mod like classic tunes by the Jam and the Who with dollops of psychedelia and fuzz-drenched guitars.

SECOND BLOCK

Tool Belt - A soaring melody that is framed with a wall of strummy guitars and a haunting mellotron. If anyone has an idea what the lyrics about, feel free to tell the Blusterfields. They have no idea.

Agent 0 - A superspy. Probably not a very good one, But he’s all we have standing between us and... the other. Call him on the white courtesy phone. Leave a message, if the mailbox is not full.

Fear of Depths - Deliberately paced by intense and filled with longing and pathos. This is the most personal the Blusterfields get until the next song.

Better Angels - The big ballad. Filled to overflowing with melody and instrumentation but never cheesy or overwrought. The Blusterfields get the balance just right on this slow slice of bombastic rock.

Into The Light - A song that is light and airy but is propelled along by a crack outfit of rock musicians that temper the subject matter with some pushy and inspired playing.

Breakdown - Technology is ever evolving causing people to become lost even though there are many platforms where they could be found. This is a song about that. Or not.

Cautionary Tail - A lascivious journey into the psyche of the protagonist that is peppered with some nice travelogue. The melody sticks like sushi rice.

Pleasure Garden - A sweeping psychedelic and erotic pastiche of a Summer of Love radio pop song with an earth Mother seductress.