he Vida Blue hail from the wonderful town of Iowa City, Iowa. Not knowing much about the closest/most prominent musical happenings in that region of the country, I can’t really speak of the Vida Blue maintaining the ’Iowa Sound’. I’ve previously read that, because of their high end guitar sound and strong rhythm section, they were dubbed part of the ‘Midwestern sound’ as far as indie rock/hardcore music goes. What I hear is a definite DC influence in their songs- bass being the strong/center point for the guitarists to work around in an almost free form manner (’Bikedance‘ having the most obvious DC influence...the few measures of drums at the beginning bring to mind some of the later Dischord releases). Yes, they are hardcore in a semi traditional sense, but the Vida Blue also manages to make really, really catchy songs (in a dissonant way, of course).


At first listen, one would think that this is simply poorly recorded, loosely knit hardcore. The recording quality of “The Comprehensive List...” does fit the bands sound and over all feel of the album. The raw guitars and bass couple with the most emotionally unstable sounding vocals ever to be recorded. Matt Davis’ voice trembles with every word he speaks, and is positively disturbing when he works up a harsh scream. And as the music fits the bands ‘style’, his vocals fit his lyrics- distrusting, hurt, apprehensive and angry.


The Vida Blue create a more cohesive album than their previous release, even managing to work in a theme that recurs throughout the record. The first song opens with an automated voice listing names that presumably have some part in the records title. The voice chimes in after every few songs- enough to make the listener aware of the theme, but not so much as to detract from the music itself.


The Vida Blue have created a very good record this time around, perhaps putting Iowa on the ’hardcore map’ (so to speak) and has quickly become my favorite of the past few months. A quality release by a woefully underrated band.