Deaf Radio‘s latest album release, “SHELTER,” is an eight tracks album, driven by guitars, rhythm and a definite hunger for movement, with each song adding layers to the band’s sound. “SHELTER” opens with “Transmitter,” quickly setting a mood that revolves around ghostly synths, piano progressions and celestial vocals.

The lyric “Chasing a dream that makes no sense” adds another layer to the mysterious intro of the track, before the album heads in a faster, more urgent direction with “Idling.” The second track is powered by nice fast drums, bass, gritty guitar and synths, the chant “We’re never going to get away” providing a strong chorus moment. The band really comes into their own at 3:43 and you realize how much movement and groove they can bring into a track.

The title track “Shelter” goes another route, beginning quietly with bass and ambient sound, then the drums kick in. At 0:42 the whole band kicks in with action, professionalism and steadiness, giving the song a powerful lift around the lyric “Lay on my hands as the walls begin to fall”. Next is “Levitate,” with drums and picked bass guitar, creating the playful line “Celebrate all the small wins dancing near the crowded place.”

Then there’s the fifth track “All My Friends,” and the lyric “All my friends are busy with their own lives” into “oh how it feels to be looking through the glass.” A personal favorite, especially for it’s melody, acoustic and lead guitars and well handled drums. The album concludes with “Big Mistake,” “Tides” and “No Place Like Home,” with “Tides” leaving the biggest final impression. The guitar grit and rock attitude carries the listener along, repeating the energy Deaf Radio have carried throughout “SHELTER.”

Connect with Deaf Radio on Spotify || Instagram || Facebook || Youtube

In “The Inheritance,” Keesha Blair gives us a very human view of wealth that can’t be measured in dollars. The song is a meditation on the idea that some gifts are all the more precious with every blessing to another life, forging a reflective link between family, memory, and what is passed from one generation to the next. What touches one most is the sense that a heritage of priceless value is still flowing on.

The song’s story starts with Grandma’s passing and the lucidity it provided. And then Mama caught the same ancestral current and drove the idea home that each generation builds on the last. The song is not about inheritance in the sense of material things, but of intangible bequests that still affect lives.

The lush vocals are warm and friendly, with a clean production that emphasizes the main idea of ‘The Inheritance.’ There’s a thread of thankfulness that weaves its way through the song, especially in the thoughts of the continuation of families and the value of things that can’t be measured on a balance sheet. Keesha Blair transforms a very personal matter into a celebration of the enduring value of what one generation can give to the next.

Connect with Keesha Blair on Spotify || Instagram || Facebook || Youtube