Brakes-'Touchdown'
It’s been a hectic 18 months for the rocky hipsters, Brakes. With sold out U.S and Canadian tours under their belt and even their track, ‘All Night Disco Party’ being given air time on ‘Ugly Betty’, the Brighton four piece are back from across the pond, with their latest offering, ‘Touchdown’ on FatCat records. Having previously released tenth track ‘Hey Hey’ as a single we are treated to the rest of the collection. 12 songs which smash their way through like a tornado and like one, it comes and goes pretty quickly. In 36 minutes to be exact.
First track ‘Two shocks’ is a quirky number with a nice progression of small scale guitar driven build ups. Front man Eamon Hamilton has a strangely soft voice and a weird little way of over pronouncing each syllable in case any carefully written word might have been lost in translation. This is maybe a good thing, as the lyrics are cheeky and fun and mainly enjoyable to listen to, although don’t expect any linguistic epiphanies.
Track five, ‘Crush On You’ sounds like a mixture of 90s bands including Super Furry Animals with its chirpy, sing a long chorus. There’s a simplistic, yet effective set up of electric guitar jives from Thomas White and complimentary bass (Marc Beatty) and drums (Alex White). It sounds like a summer song, with its boyish lament about fancying girls and new beginnings and while it’s enjoyable to listen to, it doesn’t provide you with anything deeper than that.
‘Ancient Mysteries’ still has that upbeat, 90s summer feel but the lyrical quality far exceeds the aforementioned ‘Crush On You’. Hamilton tells us the interesting story of little Julie, a teenager who runs away with her boyfriend, turns her hand to stripping and then, as was bound to happen, ends up living in an Ashram, poor girl. There’s that same classic setup again of chirpy guitar, the backbone of a bass and a toe tapping drum beat.
‘Don’t Take Me To Space (Man)’ starts off reasonably enjoyable but the lyrics and general happy-go-lucky mood of the track begin to grate and it is hard not to cringe when the line, "I don’t care if this world’s corrupted, I don’t want to be abducted", rings out with a big grin on its face.
Over all, ‘Touchdown’ is an enjoyable album without offering anything particularly unique or insightful. Most tracks sound similar, giving listeners a general mix of light, upbeat summer anthems which feel like they hark back to the good ol’ 1990s. Fun if you’re feeling nostalgic.