Bloodletting

Concrete Blonde | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 24, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000000QFR
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,784 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love is a ghost, October 15, 2003

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bloodletting (Audio CD)

"Bloodletting" remains Concrete Blonde's darkest, most masterful album. Mixing the gothic with the tragic (relationships gone sour -- "Caroline" refers to a "sad hallucination), it's dark and twisted, cynical and sad and angry. In short, it brims over with strong emotion and good music.

The brooding "Bloodletting" evokes the world of Anne Rice's bloodsuckin' charmers, with its references to vampires, New Orleans, and "I may never see the light." The more uptempo "The Sky Is A Poisonous Garden" is still tragic, as is the catchy "Caroline" and the eerily poppy "Darkening of the Light." "I Don't Need A Soldier" brims with bitterness and independence, while the blasting "Beast" is full of savage and romantic imagery, more vampires and ghosts. And "Tomorrow Wendy" is a pure cry of pain against God and an unjust world. (The religious may want to shy away from this last one, as it will probably offend)

The gothic flavor of "Bloodletting" is deceptive, with all its abandoned houses, vampires and blood, monsters and ghosts. The music, no matter how catchy it becomes, is never light and airy. It's relentlessly dark, sad at least and angry at most, claiming that "love is the leech... love is a vampire." The murky, creeping guitar seeps through the angsty songs like blood on the water.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of "Bloodletting" is the singing. While Johnette Napolitano clearly poured a lot of pain into these songs, as you can see in the writing, the emotion somehow doesn't filter through her rather low, occasionally hard to hear voice. But her growling works wonderfully in the less sad, more embittered songs.

Painful and dark, this is nevertheless a a spooky ride down into a gothic world of beasts, vampires, and love gone wrong in a dark way. A little flawed, but haunting (literally).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bloodletting: a beast and a lullabye., June 25, 2005

By 

H3@+h "Over 1500 reviews!" (thanks for the helpful review votes) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bloodletting (Audio CD)

I've been a fan of the band for 15 years, and own every album. Though each other disc of theirs is nearly perfect, this one is. 10 tracks that are dark, beautiful, aggressive, and moving. Some absolutely rock, while some are soft as a feather. This album is often labeled as goth, and between the cover art, and tracks like "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)", I guess it just may be. Musically it's extremely consistent, and each track has a similar tone regardless of the pace. However I think that Johnette's singing makes the album (and band). Her voice is so emotional and strong it's addictive. Their biggest hit ever "Joey" is on here, but I gaurantee that it's an average song on a much above average album. Any of their collections may be a good pick also, but I could listen to this album for "Days And Days".

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bloodletting Will Not Leave You Dry, November 14, 2001

By 

Richard Cody "witer of fine and not so fine p... (Big Sur, The Golden State) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bloodletting (Audio CD)

I have been a Concrete Blonde fan since their first album was released way back in 1986 ("Still in Hollywood", the song that broke them on college radio, was the tune that hooked me). I bought that first album and their second release, "Free", and found each of them to be passionate, intelligent rock n' roll driven primarily by the soulful voice and lyrics of Johnette Napolitano and the articulate guitar playing of James Mankey.

I was still listening to commercial radio in the days (1990) when "Bloodletting" was released and first heard "Joey" on the mainstream airwaves. I was glad that one of my favorite bands was receiving mass recognition but, while it was better than most of the pap on commercial radio, I found the song somehow lacking in comparison to the first two Concrete Blonde albums. So, I heard no more from "Bloodletting" until my wife, bless her heart, purchased the album - at which point I kicked myself hard for nearly missing what has since become a favorite in my music collection.

As has been observed in other reviews here, the music of "Bloodletting" - with the exception of the lovely calm of "Lullabye" - is dark in nature. This may have been a surprise to those who bought the album for the hit, "Joey" (not as dark and generally more optimistic than many of the tracks), but to me the over all sound is a natural progression from their second album, "Free"; or at least a natural progression from certain songs on that disc - I am thinking of "God is a Bullet", Roses Grow" and "Little Conversations", for instance. I would think that the album title and the cover art depicting a single blood specked white rose amid a group of red roses might provide a clue as to the nature of the music for the uninitiated.

The title track, without doubt a Gothic delight, is really much more than a simple vampire song. With the delicious dark creep of guitar and percussion which opens the song and the swirling musical shadows that accompany the lyrics regarding blood sucking and New Orleans, it is easy enough to enjoy this song at face value. It does not take much reading of the lyrics, however, to interpret the song as the lament of a victim of a bad relationship.

Although it has grown on me, I still believe that "Joey" is the weakest track on what is really an exceptional album. "Caroline", "Darkening of the Light" and "I Don't Need a Hero" are all beautiful, personal pieces that showcase the power and subtlety of Johnette's voice. "Tomorrow, Wendy" (written by the great Andy Prieboy and performed by he and Johnette on his album, "Upon My Wicked Son") is a moving song about death (and therefore life) which ends the album just as powerfully as it began.

It's too bad (and too typical, I suppose) that "Joey" is the song most people will know Concrete Blond for.

A great band. A great disc. Quality rock n' roll.