Red-Letter Day: Azure Blue LP Gets Release Date

If you haven't been sizing up the singles leading up to the release of Azure Blue's sophomore album, 'Beyond The Dreams There's Infinite Doubt,' then you're in for a real treat. The third song was just revealed the other day, and "Sunset" is another in a line of lovely synth-pop gems that dazzle like something from Factory Records' salad days.

Azure Blue is the solo project of a talented Swede named Tobias Isaksson. He's on the roster of the brilliant Matinée Recordings here in America, but I dug up this older description of the band name and his music from the site of his European label. "[Azure Blue] is a paraphrase of Dennis Wilson's 'Pacific Ocean Blue.' Tobias says: 'It's Wilson's honest look with the epic beard and the ocean blue mood itself that has inspired me. Along with other male storytellers like Ernest Hemingway, Klas Östergren and Grant McLennan. I wanted to make a mature AOR record but ended up flirting with new wave and new romantic as well.'"

With namedropping like that, you know you're in good hands. You should be able to preorder the new album for an Oct. 8 release any day now. In the meantime, give the first three singles from 'Beyond The Dreams There's Infinite Doubt' a listen right now. If you only have time for one song, give "Willows and Pines" a spin. Bliss.