Review Summary: An unoriginal yet enjoyable outing from a small upcoming Australian band.
The Brels are an indie rock band from sunny Australia. It would be easy to figure out they are from Australia; the bright sound, the upbeat jangly guitars. It seems to me like they are influenced by their surroundings, happy to live in sunshine all year round while still getting into a small emotional state. They draw a lot from their influences and that is most obvious. The jingle-jangle sound of “The Man Who Couldn’t Join A Conga Line” could easily be in a La’s song and when the band are feeling pessimistic it sounds like a modern Smiths, not to mention the pop quality could put them beside various Belle and Sebastian influenced bands.
On this recording, there is at least three vocalists and makes for some very interesting vocal call and response. One thing that popped out at me that one vocalist was reminiscent to the vocalist of Scottish alternative band Idlewild. The guitarists make for some interesting sound delivery with the bass gently harmonizing underneath it all. The lyrics are childish and almost random streams of thought but there is something weirdly charming about it. Take this example from “Golden Boy”,
“He cleans carpets everyday and his hair’s just long enough. When he picks up bits of fluff, it pokes him in the eyes so he keeps them shut and he dreams of his house. It’s got no floors, no floors…”. The reigning champion on this album is the short but innocently sweet “Rome”, a full-on indie treat. It’s catchy and has definite repeat value.
This band are young and this was released on a small local Australian label so obviously there will be some glaring flaws. First of all, at times it seems they like to imitate their influences and while some parts are subtle, some are just copies of their favourite bands. If they manage to cut down on this and bring in more new ideas, then the band would go a lot further. Secondly, this is short. With most tracks averaging two minutes and with eleven tracks, it doesn’t even reach half an hour and is the length of some EPs. If The Brels fixed these major problems, then they could go on and do better things but for a small time release that probably won’t sell past 5k copies, this is higher quality than a lot of other small bands. The production is no problem at all, while it’s not amazingly great, it certainly suits the sound and that’s the most important thing. Overall, The Brels aren’t an original band but do some enjoyable songs that aren’t difficult to take in and enjoy.
