The Milk Blossoms will release its third album Open Portal on October 4, 2024 on vinyl, streaming and digital download. Open Portal is the first album to feature the band’s new lineup including Harmony Rose (vocals, ukulele, lyrics), William Overton (keys, synth), David Samuelson (electric bass) and Tyler Lindgren (drums). For the recording Zac Greenberg plays upright bass with Lindgren producing, recording, mixing and mastering the songs. Ahead of the record drop the group just released its second single “Teenager.”
“Teenager” begins with delicate textures and rhythms with ukulele and minimal percussion while Rose doesn’t reminisce so much as offers observations and thought provoking confessions with her words. The song accelerates in pace and ukulele seems to distort apace with the increasing urgency of the vocals toward the end of the song. All without losing what might be described as a vital vulnerability. Rose’s paces aren’t the standard meter of lyrics in a pop song. They seem more free verse and more intuitive in expressing the feeling and mood of the song even as she repeats the line “living like a teenager in the summer” at the end of the song after uttering the line once in the beginning. It hits like a mantra of intent, a reminder to oneself that just because you’ve gotten used to living on someone else’s schedule and according to the demands of living in the “adult” world doesn’t mean you can’t tap into what it felt like, even if naively and with the ignorance of a lack of life experience, to see the future as a place to make your fun and to dream of what to do and then do it and not be burdened by supposed practical considerations. Further if you could act without thinking overmuch about making a minor mistake or anchored by arbitrary social rules. Living like a teenager in the summer often meant for many people an open invitation to adventures and making your own fun without it having take a certain shape or be a certain way or ritualized. The lines “Glamor chandelier I’ve got a mind to escape to/what do you know about an open portal?” suggest that imagination and creativity is free to everyone who wants to escape mundane existence if they’re willing to act on it.
Growing into adulthood seems to be largely about increasing limitations that are largely arbitrary. This song appears to be an invitation, a challenge, to living outside those bounds at least once in awhile to feel alive and vital. It’s a rebel song without being try hard and thus more effective for it. Listen to “Teenager” on YouTube and follow The Milk Blossoms at the links below. Catch the band live at MCA Denver on July 19, 2024 with Dogtags, at The Skylark Lounge on August 22 with Car Microwave and mlady and at the album release show for Open Portal at the Hi-Dive on October 5 with George Cessna and Wheelchair Sports Camp.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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