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Opening the record with “Enemy” was a wise decision from Xavier Bernazard & The Deadly Beloved, its bluesy intro and warm dynamic melodies set the expectations of what’s coming next while its theatrical progression, big sound, and powerful vocal melody will keep you hooked until its slow emotional outro that sets the mood for the 2nd song “Hello”. “Hello” has beautifully arranged and layered orchestrations with an expressive vocal melody and smooth dynamic structure. “Loose End” comes next, picking the record’s dynamics up again with hard-hitting riffs and melodic shredding melodies alongside Xavier Bernazard & The Deadly Beloved’s obvious gothic and classical mixed influences that allowed them to craft such an interesting structure. With a fluid heavily melodic and groovy bass “XOXO” starts, it softly grows into a heavier and heavily emotional sound with guest Badger Darkes adding a unique twist and deeper layer to the vocal melody, especially with that super catchy chorus. “You Left Me” is one of my favourites off this record, it has deep sincere melodies and beautiful fluid vocals by guest Alyssa Gillen that went in total harmony with Xavier’s all in a groovy dynamic setting with grungy dark vibes. The dreamy “Summer Nostalgia” acts as a cool breeze right in the middle of the record before we move into the moving, festive-sounding “Restart”. It has bright colourful melodies with an open sound and Xavier Bernazard & The Deadly Beloved’s unique grand theatrical dynamics. “De Mi” came in adding a swaying percussive flavour to the record’s mix with new influences being fused into their unique sound, interestingly steering the flow towards new territory. “Push & Pull” comes next with its soothing vibes and fluid melodies before the rocking “Hero Song” hits with its amazing piano and energetic flow. I loved its organic structure and how they smoothly engineered its well crafted engaging dynamics. “Ponyboy” picked its predecessor’s energy and flow before we get into the extremely melodic alternative tune “Don’t Runaway (Funeral Version)”, that one had obvious classic alternative vibes with angelic performance from guest Via Arya that’ll keep you hooked and wanting more. Ending the record on a high note comes the title track “Balloons for my Funeral”, it sums up Xavier Bernazard & The Deadly Beloved‘s good traits and style, with some enjoyable jazzy drumming, remarkable vocals, and catchy guitars all in a fluid streaming melodic structure that’ll make play the record all over again. 

“Balloons for my Funeral” is a solid debut record by Xavier Bernazard & The Deadly Beloved, it shows their songwriting skills and how aware they are of their sound and direction, making me look forward to their next release to see where they’re going to take this. Will definitely be keeping an eye on Xavier Bernazard & The Deadly Beloved, I’m glad I had the chance to review this, cheers! 

Before I even listened, I couldn’t help but admire the cover art, it’s so dope! I absolutely love the animated style of the art and song. The song sounds like it could be an intro to anime, it even sounds like it could be the opening to HunterxHunter! An honorable mention are Bernazard’s beautiful vocals, which really give soul to the entire song. The entire song makes me want to get up and just work out, it made me excited and felt like I could face any obstacle that comes my way at this moment..

All in all, I absolutely loved the creativity in this song, from cover art to lyrics to the actual music, and I really hope this album becomes Xavier’s big break!