Influences Playlist: Blood

We are inviting our favorite musicians to compile playlists of the songs and artists who have impacted their latest projects the most. The latest Influences guest is Blood, the queer, Philadelphia postal-punk sextet whose debut album, Loving You Backwards, is an intimate, poetically distant mirage of post-rock and pop.

Loving You Backwards is a departure from the band’s operatic past. Instead, these 10 songs are quieter and much more focused on contained hooks and memorable melodies. The Strokes-like guitars of “Spaced Out” and the age-old rises and falls of “TV for a Reason” sound miraculously exciting, even when Tim O’Brien’s lyrics fall into tragic territory; “One Dimensional Man” zeroes in on the idea that sex might “distract us from our oppressors.”

There’s no doubt that Loving You Backwards is a rewarding listen. Read between the lines of the stories being told by these Philadelphians, and you’ll be rewarded with even more clarity and unclarity. Everything comes to a head on “Bare,” the emotive, skeleton-stripping ballad that rollicks as confoundingly as it stirs up grief and longing. “In the evening on someone else’s time, believe in what I told you,” O’Brien sings. “It’s all that I’m meaning.” Loving You Backwards is Blood’s record of “ideas and big honesty.” You can feel all of it in every note.

Check out Blood’s Influences playlist, which includes songs from Sparks, Carly Simon and Stereolab, below.

Liars: “Brats”

The first year we lived in Philadelphia as we were writing this album, I biked everywhere in the city, and this song was in a constant rotation. Peak lockdown and the highlights of my day would sometimes be biking like an absolute mad man blasting this song full volume in my headphones trying not to get hit by Philly drivers, and I think some of that energy was displaced into this record.

Stereolab: “Anamorphose”

This song has one of my favorite horn parts of all time, it’s so surprisingly welcome.

The Flaming Lips: “Pilot Can at the Queer of God”

I stumbled upon this album at the library when I was 15 and absolutely fell in love with it. The drumming on this album and this song in particular have a huge influence on the way I approach playing drums to this day.

Florry: “Big Fall”

Not as influential to the sound of the album for me but deeply important in keeping me excited about music.

XTC: “Snowman”

Love the rhythm and playfulness of this song, and the lyric “People will always wipe their feet on anything with welcome written on it.” I could have chosen a dozen different XTC songs, but I chose this one.

Sparks: “Sherlock Holmes”

This is one of those songs that haunted me from the first time I heard it. The atmosphere created with the synth was something that I thought about a lot in terms of mixing, because it really isn’t overwhelming volume wise, but it defines the whole song for me.

The Children of Sunshine: “It’s a Long Way to Heaven”

My friend Ficken put this on a mixtape for me at the time and the whole tape was gold, but this is the one that transported me the most. It is such a dreary message but told with a lot of hope. It’s a really weird one. Show it to your kids and then have them freak people out when they sing it in public.

Colleen: “November”

It feels like a Christmas memory of childhood without screaming or crying or the come down of consumer binging.

Robert Palmer: “Johnny and Mary”

I heard this song going out dancing with my boyfriend early on in our relationship so I got a soft spot for it. It is one of the most instantly catchy and hooky songs I know while still feeling singular and narrative. I love this song so god damn much and you should dance with your butt to it soon.

Carly Simon: “Why”

This was a part of the Summa Sum Playlist which was created by my besties Sara and Elana in the Summer of 2021, which was one of the greatest summers of all time mostly because of this playlist. It was so hard to choose just one, but this Carly song bumps so fucking hard and is undeniable.