Impressive does give proper justice to the end product that Shades of Blue A Cappella produces with Brighter Days. However, what else can one say about an album that impresses you with its dominant solo performances, otherworldly conviction, and phenomenal attention to cohesion (in both group blend and production)?

One of the pivotal elements of Brighter Days is that Shades of Blue A Cappella's sound is so developed and rich that I did not realize they are a high school group until after my first listen to the album. Even then, the idea is still a struggle to fathom.

The conviction that this group is able to embody and present through its music is astonishing given the age demographic. There is no denying that Shades of Blue A Cappella sings with a high level of emotional maturity that is beyond their years, and a fair amount of adoration goes to their soloists. How the group was able to amass such a strong collection of lead singers is remarkable. All deliver memorable moments, but a few deserve to be highlighted.

It is not enough that the group offers one of the most spiritually gripping arrangements in How Will I Know but then Kylie Niple breaks our hearts with her lead performance! Niple's vocals are riveting as she exudes a restrained vocal prowess that is gentle yet skillfully controlled. The solo pairs gorgeously with the emotionally charged backing arrangement displaying a performance that can best be described as deeply reflective and immensely impactful.

Control conjures up similar sentiments, as Jay Phillips's lead vocals are reminiscent of a hero experiencing a journey of growth. The confidence factor builds with each verse culminating in a gorgeous display of Phillips's higher range, blending perfectly with the tone and momentum of the backing group to generate an aura and musical space full of reassurance and beautiful resolution.

Skylar Zakrzeski's more subdued but entrancing solo on Outsider brings forth a welcomed moment of relief for listeners to simply enjoy a calming musical delivery. While the intensity is not as dynamic as previous tracks, the slow pacing and at times sparseness in the arrangement affords Zakrzeski's vocals a moment to gracefully glide over an angelic track.

Lastly, Gold is simply the GOLD standard of the album. Audrey Brown has one of the most powerful voices I have EVER heard in all of a cappella! Her ability to effortlessly riff at the top of her extraordinary range leaves me nearly falling over on more than one occasion. What makes the song even more special is the stout vocal support she receives from her backing group throughout the entire track. This song is sheer magic!

While much of Brighter Days boasts phenomenal solo talent, the entire project is indeed a team effort. The backing group of Shades of Blue A Cappella masterfully creates a unified and harmonious vocal foundation elevating the already big moments. Brighter Days shines brightly as a must-listen for any music lover!

It should come as no surprise that Brighter Days is a fantastic release. This is the first full-length album by Shades of Blue A Cappella, and was shortly followed by the group being crowned as the new 2023 ICHSA champions. This album has everything you need for a highly rated experience: killer soloists, outstanding arrangements, and an impressive array of palpable emotions that makes every song leap out of the speakers.

Let's start with the opening statements of the album. Risk It All takes no time making an introductory statement. The track is fun and bouncy while still being driving and musically complex. Love Me Now follows suit while building on those concepts. MaKenna Sandy does a beautiful job as the soloist and focal point of the piece. However, almost more impressive is how well all the backgrounds are interwoven into the arrangement. Rob Dietz really outdid himself here. The piece is incredibly complex and I could spend hours doing a score study on this one song. However, for all the complexity that exists, the soloist is still the main driver of the song. Even the most complex rhythms and chords are all in support of the soloist while remaining interesting.

The middle tracks feel a little bit blended together, but that's also just a product of having an album that is slightly ballad heavy. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm a sucker for a good ballad, so this chunk of songs speaks to me. How Will I Know might be my favorite song of the year thus far. It is just so sonically rich. Kylie Niple's solo is equal parts powerful and emotionally raw. The solo is surrounded by these incredibly dense and lush chords. Katherine Bodor's arrangement is wonderfully dramatic and aurally satisfying. The drama continues through Control and Outsider. But with these versions right next to each other, the overall impact of each is lessened. Individually, I could listen to them many times over. Over the course of an entire album, they start to become one conglomerated ballad.

The last few tracks are all different kinds of uplifting, and I'm smitten with all of them for different reasons. Apple Pie speaks of the comfort found in someone. Brighter Days is a promise of a better tomorrow. Gold is the group's final return to that complex yet fun and driving sound. Audrey Brown's solo is otherworldly, with some impressive vocal runs. This song tells the tale of loving the moment you're in, and that emotion is apparent across the entire track and in the voice of every single member of the group. This is high school contemporary a cappella at its finest, plain and simple.

When all is said and done with Brighter Days, there's only one thing to do: hit play and listen again. This album is a must-add to any a cappella collection and serves as a notice for all the collegiate and non-scholastic groups in the area to be on the lookout for these members to audition. I will happily listen to this album again while waiting for the next installment from Shades of Blue.

One of my favorite things as a RARB reviewer is when a group has clearly improved between projects. Art is subjective, but craftsmanship is honed, and growth in craftsmanship is one of life's greatest satisfactions. Between their past project Courage and this album Brighter Days, Shades of Blue A Cappella has done an amazing amount of honing said craft.

The improvements are not in-your-face dramatic changes — they're actually far less glamorous. Musical lines have more forward motion and much more lead into the next moment. Verses and choruses within the same song equally hold interest, rather than one strong half-carrying the other adequate one. Dynamic contrast is less exaggerated and instead more nuanced on a phrase-by-phrase level. I don't know to what degree these improvements are in the production, or in the group's practiced ability, but it's apparent nonetheless.

And these "less glamorous" improvements are exactly what I was hoping for. In my review of Courage, I noted that Shades of Blue was taking interesting risks in arrangements and solo work, but that inconsistent fundamentals inhibited the group's musical impact. This problem is no longer present on Brighter Days. From one song to the next, from Risk It All through Control to the finish Gold, Shades of Blue exhibits one strong solo after another with song choices that consistently play to the group's strengths.

Which leads me to the one remaining major sticking point I have with the album: it plays too closely to a very narrow set of strengths, and many of the tracks start to blend together too much by the end. It's a lot of strong alto soloists on ever-so-slightly uptempo energetic tracks. Risk It All, Love Me Now, Control, and Apple Pie especially fall into this bucket. That Way and Brighter Days venture a bit away from this mold, but not quite enough. And these songs are still very good, don't get me wrong! But "5"s on the RARB scale, to me, indicate a group playing to its strengths but very often out of its comfort zone. Shades of Blue has strengths and a comfort zone, and now needs to venture farther more often.

Thankfully, the album does show some signs of riskiness. Audrey Brown's fiery solo on Gold turns what would've been a great album finale into an excellent one. It's clear that Shades of Blue can perform way more uptempo songs like this and nail them based on this track. On the other end of the spectrum, How Will I Know takes a dance-pop classic and reimagines it as a solemn lyric-focused ballad. There are a million ways a cover like this can go wrong — if the execution isn't sound, it can come across as melodramatic cheese instead of genuine heartfelt emotion. Thankfully, Shades of Blue nails the execution and so it evokes the latter. Katherine Bodor's arrangement is beautiful, Kylie Niple's solo equally so, and background vocalists support them in exactly all the right ways. This is by far my favorite song on the album and one of my favorite tracks I've reviewed in the last year or two.

One thing the group still hasn't improved on, unfortunately, is liner notes. As I mentioned last time, it is important to credit songwriters, not original performers (e.g. How Will I Know is written by Merrill, Rubicam, and Walden — not by Whitney Houston). This doesn't affect the score, but it is important to call out.

Shades of Blue has upped the ante on Brighter Days. They've found their beauty box and have learned to sing and perform in that space consistently over the course of a whole album. That is no easy feat. The next step now is to practice performing outside of that beauty box and aiming for excellence there as well. And I have no doubt that they can do it after listening to the growth between these past two projects.