REVIEW: Blankenberge - Decisions

a holiday at the sea

40:44 // July 25, 2025 // Automatic Music

Blankenberge’s namesake, an idyllic seaside resort destination in northwestern Belgium, could be argued to represent a sort of mental foxhole or aspirational Valhalla for the Russian shoegaze quartet who have adopted it as their moniker. Hailing from Barnaul, Siberia, an admittedly large city that is still more sparsely populated than Des Moines, Iowa, Blankenberge are well acquainted with harsh winters, vast expanses of snowy dirt crunching beneath bootprints, and the desire to keep warm when the sun declines to lend its ear. It’s no wonder that a transformational trip to that very seaside paradise has become a kind of ideological modus operandi for the group, as even their chilliest, most isolating musical moments contain all the emotional warmth of a hug from a cherished loved one. Their latest effort, the dreamy Decisions, locates valuable opportunities to double down on the ever reliable Blankenberge formula, a task it accomplishes so triumphantly that it almost successfully distracts from the formula’s tendency to grow tired when administered in larger doses.

Given that 2021’s stellar Everything constitutes the last offering audiences received from Blankenberge, one would not be remiss to wonder how the group would decide to raise the curtain on their newest collection of work. If you’re one of the fans in question, and you guessed that they would not barge so much as pour like molasses out of the gate with a glacial and ethereal dream pop journey, congratulations; you’ve won a 2015 moondust silver Ford Fiesta. “Now You Know” is preceded by an overture of woozy synth pads that gives way to the band’s trademark ethereal leads, and is punctuated by booming drums that beckon from across the oceanic horizon. A progression the group has made on both production and performance fronts is their ability to blend the two faces of their sound in an almost effortless fashion. As demonstrated around two minutes into “Now You Know”, their angelic guitar tones can be injected with a distorted grit that somehow does not subtract from the treble, nor the overall beauty factor of the melodies being played. This effect is multilayered due to the thunderous bass that rattles enough to shake the fillings from one’s teeth, with pattering, tribalesque drums catapulting the track to an unforgettable conclusion.

While the record’s opening six minutes may meet listener expectations with aplomb, Decisions preemptively resists categorization as one-note with the stellar follow-up track “New Rules”. It’s easy to picture our foursome of Siberian winter warriors conjuring the Belgian coastline in their minds while cooking this one up. “”New Rules” contrasts itself against the chilly “Now You Know” with a synth-pad sunrise at the start and a jaunty, uptempo groove dominated by thumping bass and reverb-soaked drums. As the song steadily ratchets up its dynamics, the dam bursts with a guitar break that resembles a heavenly buzzsaw, separating the listener into corporeal and astral bodies alike to experience all dimensions of what the music has to show them.

As Decisions’ tracklist gradually progresses down an icy river, listeners will find it treating transitions between these two established moods with the black-and-white outlook of an ON-OFF switch, as opposed to a more nuanced dimmer. Given the aforementioned progression Blankeberge had demonstrated with integrating these sounds, this grows frustrating rather quickly. Frosty numbers like “Too Many Voices” or “Escape” exhibit patience through their ambient picking and plaintive vocal layers, with the apexes of these tunes not reaching out and grabbing the listener by the lapel so much as just crashing over them, sounding more like a natural unfolding than a deliberate musical attack. “Escape” is noteworthy for utilizing two simple chord changes and otherworldly reverb to create beauty out of almost nothing; the percussion rattling off in the background provides the song’s necessary rhythmic character, while each astutely chosen melodic phrase courtesy of the guitars and vocals rings out warmly and truly. Of the spacier cuts, the synth-dominated “There Was A Time” chases a similar goal of drowning the listener in bittersweet euphoria, at times resembling the soundtrack of waiting in line to meet whatever sort of power is there to meet you when this is all over. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it develops into a fully interesting idea at any point, and it undeniably represents the lull of the tracklist, most apparently because of its refusal to commit to an actual structure until it’s too late.

The flip side of the musical coin doesn’t merely poke its head through your open doorway to make its presence known on the remaining tracks; it’s more like it does a looping back handspring and somersaults into your ever-growing pile of laundry. However, it treats the more hypnotic aspects of the band’s songwriting like Clark Kent treats Superman, and never has the ability to remain in the room with him at the same time. ”Together” is a banger and a half where the bass gets another opportunity to take center stage and shine, while closer ”Waiting for the Sun” honors its title by truly sounding anticipatory of its earth-shattering conclusion, thrumming bass and intoxicating arpeggios effortlessly melting into a coda that skyrockets in intensity with dynamic shifts that are missable with a single blink. The tracks are good on their own, but each extreme of the Blankenberge sound comes off feeling like it’s missing its pièce de résistance, despite how wonderful the album sounds as is.

Decisions’ own decisiveness about its modus operandi is abundantly clear. Variation is not the name of the game, and with the exception of mid-album slammer “Our Home Our Planet”, the record’s two distinct approaches don’t cross their wires at any discernible point. The group’s fourth full-length album does not constitute a reinvention of their sound, nor any significant evolution, but Blankenberge do their own specific style of shoegaze so well that variations on a theme might be superfluous here. It’s dreamy, punchy, airy, aggressive, and light as a feather, and the occasional bloat it suffers from is no match for its strengths when weighing the pros and cons of dedicating your time to it. Do yourself a favor, throw this bad boy on, and dream of the seaside.

8/10.

Yo Yo, check out these highlight tracks:

-”Now You Know”

-”New Rules”

-”Escape”