Bricolage
Bricolage
Slumberland
When you stand in the middle of the pack, you’re less likely to be eaten by wolves, and less like to get to the best grazing first. Bricolage reminds me of any number of disposable pop groups – happy, healthy, dressed in a clean shirt, smelling good without too much aftershave, but not much beyond that. Sure they can pull out a ’60s “shoop-shoop-shoop,” the drummer is in time and the vocalist crisp and low-calorie, but after spinning the record three times on auto play, I looked up and thought, “Oh, it that still on?”
Still, if you focus on individual songs, it’s hard to find a bad one here. “A Terrible Souvenir” sounds like a souped-up Beach Boys love song, “6th Form Poet” keeps the same style of arrangement, but tackles the angst of late teenage romantic depression, and “Plots Are For Cemeteries” is one of the best pop song titles I’ve run into lately. It’s a slower, dreamy, number that recalls the Housemartins. Despite the odd band name, this band has promise – the playing and arranging is top of the heap, their pop sensibilities unquestionable, but they need a breakout song.
Slumberland Records: http://www.slumberlandrecords.com
