Review Summary: The (extremely) poor man's Whatever People Say I Am... .
Bromheads Jacket is one of those bands that I never would've heard of had it not been for the audio department working on Burnout Paradise. I don't know why, but this specific game had fantastic tracks from bands like The Photo Atlas and LCD Soundsystem, however Bromhead's track "Fight Music For The Fight" was by far my favorite. I never decided to look further into the band until now, but when I listened to their first album, Dits From The Commuter Belt, I could not help but be disappointed.
This album is quite hit-and-miss. The band has quite a heavy garage rock style, and the entire length of the album is extremely fast-paced, clocking in at a very short 32 minutes. The main problem I have with Dits From The Commuter Belt is that it is very, very similar to Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not from another Sheffield band, the Arctic Monkeys. Even the structure of the album is close to equal, with an interlude ("Riot Van" in Whatever People Say I Am…, "Rosey Lee" in Dits) in the middle serving as the only slow track amidst of a blitzkrieg of blistering garage rock. (Of course, Whatever People Say I Am… is a much better album.)
Dits From The Commuter Belt is very hit-and-miss. There are really only 2 tracks that work on the entire album: "Fight Music For The Fight", really the only (slightly) original track in here, and closer "Hazy In Yatley", which is the only track to feature some form of tempo change outside of atrocious tracks "Rosey Lee" and "Poppy Bird".
The rest of the album feels like it lacks originality in terms of music. Everything is at pretty much the same tempo (really, really fast), Tim doesn't so much sing as half-yell his lyrics, and the guitars sound like they've been playing the same track for the entire album.
The lyrics, though, are decent. As much as they lack creatively music-wise, Bromheads Jacket has the potential to create decent lyrics. They aren't spectacular by any means, but they are miles better than some of their English brethren (*cough* The Strypes *cough*.) That doesn't mean they can make up for their monotonous music, however.
Overall, this album sucks, for the most part. The music isn't very good, the lyrics are okay, and while there a couple gems hidden beneath, there just isn't enough good in here to make the album worthwhile. Don't waste your time with these guys.
