By May 2001, when Deep Blue Something released their self-titled third album, the band from Denton, TX, led by brothers Todd and Toby Pipes, had been away from record stores long enough to qualify for inclusion in the next edition of The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders for "Breakfast at Tiffany's," which peaked in the Top Five in January 1996 and helped the band's second album, Home, to gold-record status. The group planned a follow-up called Byzantium for a fall 1998 release, but it never appeared, and in the wake of the Universal/PolyGram merger, they parted ways with Interscope records. At long last, Phoenix, AZ-based independent label Aezra issued Deep Blue Something, which contains many of the tracks bruited for Byzantium. Home was largely the product of Todd Pipes' lyrical vision, a brainy mixture of culture references and young-adult romantic musings, but Deep Blue Something is split between his and Toby Pipes' songs, as both brothers have become more introspective and less direct in their statements. Certainly, there is a sense of struggle in the words to songs like "Burning a Past," "Hell in Itself," and "Who Wants It" (all penned by Todd), and uncertainty is also a constant, notably in the first single, "She Is," which begins, "Who am I to say what I believe is the way things should be?" The band sets such sentiments to spacious rock arrangements dominated by strong guitar riffs, with occasional horn and string parts. It's a sparkling pop sound that should be welcomed by music fans currently rediscovering the 1980s, as well as the Beatles. There isn't another "Breakfast at Tiffany's" here (maybe that's why Interscope bowed out), but that seems to be deliberate. Deep Blue Something attempts to redefine the band as a more mature, serious, and, inevitably, less accessible unit.
© William Ruhlmann /TiVo
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