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Album Review: Bleu - A Watched Pot

A Watched Pot - the third record of Bleu - supposed to follow Redhead but got into a lot of trouble.

A Watched Pot cover

A Watched Pot was recorded with John Fields in 2005 for Aware/Columbia Records.
A few weeks after finishing the record Bleu was dropped from the label (as well as many other artists) because of downsizing of Sony.
This did not stop him to play his songs and stream them and new ones at Myspace (Does anyone remember Myspace? It is so long ago!). The record was never released on CD or digital ... until 2009! 


These four years were full of creative work: Bleu moved from Boston to L.A., put out L.E.O.  - Alpacas Orgling (a project with Mike Viola, Andy Sturmer of Jellyfish and Jason Scheff of Chicago), created The Major Labels (a power-pop project with Mike Viola and Ducky Carlisle) and released Aquavia (the first and maybe last record of The Major Labels), and worked as a producer.

The A Watched Pot sessions resulted in these songs (I'm not sure if this list is complete):

- Save Me
- Boy Meets Girl
- Come 'n' Go
- The Blame Game
- It Can't Be Bad (If It Feels So Good)
- Go
- I Won't Fuck You Over (This Time)
- What Now
- What Kinda Man Am I
- No Such Thing As Love
- The Penguin Song
- I'm In Love With My Lover
- Kiss Me
- One Day
- Singin' In Tongues
- When The Lights Go Out
- A Watched Pot
- Take Cover

The retail version was finally released on July 14, 2009 with the following track list:

1 Save Me
2 Come 'N Go
3 No Such Thing As Love
4 Boy Meets Girl
5 Kiss Me
6 I Won't Fuck You Over (This Time)
7 When The Lights Go Out
8 What Now?
9 Go
10 One Day
11 What Kinda Man Am I?
12 The Penguin Song (hidden track)

I'm In Love With My Lover and Singin In Tongues were used for FOUR (the follow-up of A Watched Pot in 2010) while The Blame Game, It Can't Be Bad, Take Cover and A Watched Pot were released with Besides, a compilation of B-Sides and previously unreleased material in 2011.

Bleu said:”It truly means the world to me to finally get this record released. It always feels good to put your art out in to the world, but after all I've gone through for this material to see the light of day, the reward is particularly sweet.”

I am so glad Bleu was finally able to release this album.
A Watched Pot may not be as upbeat as Redhead was, but these songs are so strong - it would have been a shame not to have it out in the world.
It's a perfect record, in terms of production, clever lyrics and wonderful harmonies - all is carried by the wide ranged strong voice of Bleu.


I won't go into detail about the songs, just listen to them!
Only one thing: Every single song on this record is addictive, catchy and marvelous.

Here are the official videos for No Such Thing As Love And Come'n'Go:



Official website: www.bleutopia.com
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Comments

  1. NormFebruary 15, 2020 at 4:50 PM

    I saw bleu perform this accoustically at the time of release. It was a fantastic show. This album is full of great ballads that lend themselves to an unplugged concert well.

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