It’s been over a year in the making, but I will finally get to see AFI live again later this fall, but in the meantime, Jade Puget and Davey Havok’s side project, Blaqk Audio, have put out a new album and I’m here for it! It doesn’t seem like any time at all has passed since their 2020 release, Beneath the Black Palms, but that’s what a pandemic will do to time I guess. Now we’ve been treated to Trop d’Amour!
Translated from the French phrasing, it means “too much love,” and that’s just a great freaking album title in my opinion. Something else great about Blaqk Audio? It’s how different they sound compared to AFI, but in a way that still sounds like a product of its two members. Straight away I can declare that I liked this album better than the last. In fact, this whole album was pretty fantastic! It’s something you listen to and know it’d be a crime not to dance to, no matter how small the move.
Standouts on the record for me included “Blue Cherry” and “Cowboy Nights,” the latter of which has an interesting neon blacklight music video to go with it. Odd choice, but the song slaps so I don’t really care. “EDZ” was also a really cool song, and the rest were strong too. It may have run into a problem near the end where the songs kind of started blending together for me, but admittedly I was multitasking while listening to this. I think if I’d give it the usual drawing attention most other albums get from me, then I wouldn’t have that opinion. Regardless of all of that though, I still really enjoyed listening to this record. I felt my shoulders shrugging along to the beat for every track.
I hope someday these guys will do a full-fledged tour as Blaqk Audio and not just stick to the New York’s and LA’s of this world, but it seems unlikely. I will settle for AFI instead, but fingers crossed for the future. I’d say if you want to be introduced to this duo, Trop d’Amour is the perfect album to start with!