Biography
Likewise Vultures is the logical-yet-antithetical progression for songwriter Chris Blackmore, whose previous musical outfit (Hills like White Elephants) thrived on bombast and orchestral grandeur. While retaining the helter-skelter, non-linear songwriting style of Hills, Blackmore has cut the fat from the bone, stripping his songs down to bare essentials - voice, guitar, and sparse accompaniment are the order of the day - and exploring a newfound subtlety of dynamics. Lyrically too, Likewise Vultures bespeaks subtlety as well as minimalism, with Blackmore penning songs of concise, brutal, yet poetical introspection.

Without fail, when listening to Vultures one is - above all else - struck by Blackmore's unflinching engagement with the specter of death. But these are not songs of pure or ineffectual doomsaying; rather, they are empathetic portraits of mortality and how it bestows meaning on our lives. Placing ideas of filial love and devotion, family politics, moral decay, and the beauty of nature in dialog with cosmic nihilism, Blackmore certainly does not write for fun-seekers or the faint of heart. But to those who sometimes appreciate being put ill at ease, his songs may just offer food for thought with a dash of hope.