Peering through its sheerest veneer, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s latest seems to be all about random fun. Given, “Blueberry Jam” is a melodically-exuberant up-tempo romp that’s indeed pleasant to the ears. The music video that accompanies it, too, is nothing short of eccentric either. In it, Will Oldham dons a ridiculous all-blue attire that, for fans of Arrested Development, might well recall shades of Tobias Fünke’s Blue Man Group-centric aspirations.
There’s much more than initially meets the senses of this blueberry-smattered neo-hippie anthem. The Prince himself would recall in a press release that his “jam” takes inspiration from the harrowing moments following that false missile alert this January. “What could they do with such a soul-jostling?” Oldham asks, referring to the emotional tousling that he and his wife had been put through during those long 30 minutes. “Fortunately, they had friends,” he concludes. “Friends who had supplied them with THC-laced chocolate covered blueberries.”
So while it is, as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy himself says, “a fruit-filled jammer to end all fruit-filled endeavours”, his “Blueberry Jam” never would have been made had it not been for being put through such a dire situation. It’s a drug-induced, fruit-fueled criticism of the world we live in today.