The great thing about Let My Heart Not Becoming Blind is that you can indeed enjoy it from Monday to Sunday. It is hoped that Bos will continue to find the time to come up with the next collection of songs in the foreseeable future.
– Constant Meijers, Hitweek / Aloha
MONTHRUSUN
Let My Heart Not Become Blind
From 1989 to 1995, under the alias Blue Woodstone, Hans Bos was singer and composer of the Tilburg band Soft Parade. The band was picked up by Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) who released the debut EP Nobody Told You Anything on his Anxious Records label. That EP will undoubtedly have pushed the group up in the momentum of the people of Tilburg, nationally and internationally the success was below expectations. Bos moved to Amsterdam and started a design agency, KochxBos, with his wife Esther Koch, to which they added a now successful art gallery more than ten years ago.
Fortunately, Bos did not completely lose sight of his music history, because eleven new songs have now been released under the title Let My Heart Not Become Blind, all written by Bos himself. They are sung by Bos and accompanied by, among others, star guitarist Robin Berlijn (Fatal Flowers) and drummer / producer Remco Schouten. And I have to be very wrong if bass player Dick Brouwers (13) does not hide behind the excellent bass performance.
The eleven songs make it clear that Bos has his feet in the music of the sixties and seventies. Bos writes melodic pop songs, with strong lyrics and rich accompaniment, here and there with choirs, strings and wind instruments, such as in Something New, Sorry and Home. And in the impressive Family, it’s our blood with the lines “Our veins are like rivers / coming from the same top / your beauty makes us givers”.
The opening song Moon Mix immediately puts the listener on the trail of the British music tradition that shines through the work of Bos. With his slightly nasal voice, the use of a harmonica and the use of a background choir, Bos evokes the work of The Kinks. In the quieter songs Family, it’s our blood, Something New and Inking Black, Bos uses the low register of his voice and reminds the almost forgotten British singer Kevin Ayers.
Fortunately, Bos does not shy away from a solid rock song. His two-chord-based ICBWIW – I can be who / what I want – is clearly inspired by the pulsating rhythm of The Velvet Underground. And he brings his repertoire in the spirit of the time by discussing the climate in Powerlack – “you lack the power to make the changes.”
The great thing about Let My Heart Not Becoming Blind is that you can indeed enjoy it from Monday to Sunday. In addition, a team of twenty makers provided each song with an original video clip. You are a designer or not! It is hoped that Bos will continue to find the time to come up with the next collection of songs in the foreseeable future. Because as his predecessors already sang: a week has eight days!
Constant Meijers
Hitweek / Aloha