Jazz indie artist Puma Blue put out his newest album ‘antichamber’ on Feb. 18. The 35-minute album features Blue’s usually soft, dreamy vocals, with a minimal amount of instruments, and beats making it a calming experience for every listener. However, it’s different from his usual style of music, straying away from jazz and moving towards a folk style.
The intro of the album starts off with an ambiance, no vocals are featured, only sounds. It’s eerie in a way and it made me feel a little uneasy. This isn’t new for some of Puma Blue’s songs, as he often can find himself making more eerie songs that make the listener peak up and listen closer.
The first track “hotel room” starts off with a soft guitar, and we’ll find most of the songs on this album featuring. This is another heartbreak album from Blue, not a surprise, but this one seems to feel more vulnerable than the rest. In this song, he searches for his lost lover in his new hotel room. He can feel them there with him, but he knows they are not. It’s a heart-wrenching song and it sets the tone for the rest of the album.
We then go into “whilst my heart breaks,” another song about longing for what he once had, as well as his mission to wait for his lost partner. It features the same isolated vocals, and lone guitar as he sings melodically. This song was probably my favorite on the album, and most people who have gone through heartbreak will be able to relate to something in this song.
In the third track, “gone is grace,” Puma goes over his struggles, expressing himself to his partner. “I must have tried every combination of words, Sitting for hours and fumbling the words.” This line in the song stuck with me the most. I think everyone can relate to not knowing what to say, and Blue perfectly conveys what it feels like when experiencing that in a breakup.
We then go into the interlude “for montealegre” and even in the instrumentals Puma is still able to convey heartbreak, and the loneliness most people feel when going through it with just ambiance.
After that, there’s “tangent mind,” which is a short ballad to his ex. With the same guitar, he recounts a moment they had together, however, he wishes that he could remember what she had said to him.
This is an album of longing and remembering, as we go into the next track “in my wildest dreams” it proves that once again. Puma tells the audience what he wishes he would have done differently in his relationship, and the line that stuck out to me is the last one, “If I was only older.” This is a common experience for a lot of people, and this ballad encapsulates the dread people hold when remembering their past relationships, and recounting all they did wrong.
After that, we go into another interlude, “dying as a note,” featuring the same rain ambiance we heard in “for montealegre.” It makes the listener feel lonely and sad, the same as he was feeling when making the album.
Track 8, “shame” starts and ends with a melancholic instrumental outro and intro. This, I would consider the saddest song on the album, you can hear the pain in Puma’s voice as he sings. It’s such a vulnerable song that when listening I had to stop what I was doing, and listen as he spoke about the way he feels towards himself for the pain he put his ex-lover through. This was another one of my favorites on the album.
The next is only a minute-long track, “in the absence of you” which is a short and sweet song, only featuring one verse and a repeat of the title, in a short amount of time it hones in on what this whole album is about, and the longing displayed throughout the whole thing.
Track 10 is another one of longing, in “tapesty” Puma goes on about how he felt as though he and his partner would forever last, however, he steps back into reality by telling the listener that his dream has died. Making this song one of the even sadder songs on this album.
Nearing the end of the album, track 11 is almost to me a track of acceptance of what has happened. In “long term parking passes” Puma speaks on his perspective of his ex, as he watches her walk away. The line “No returning this way, And she knows” sticks out to me, and implies that he knows that she won’t ever come back and that he has to watch her move on, even though he’s not.
Finally, concluding the album we have another ambient instrumental, “decatur bells.” This song wraps up the album beautifully, as we are thrown into the depths of the loneliness felt during a breakup and the sorrow of it once again.
Overall this album was beautifully done and had me remembering my own breakups throughout my listen. It perfectly encapsulated the loneliness and gut-wrenching anxiety that comes with losing someone that you love and it threw us into the depths of his own regrets.
This album is perfect for anyone who is going through a breakup and wants to indulge in even more heartbreak. Or for the everyday listener who wants to experience a short and quick heartbreak in just 35 minutes.
