The Brownies pick a very loud fight
Sometimes you just aren’t prepared for what you get when you pop in a promo CD. Upon picking up the debut album from The Brownies, I got the impression that it would be some kind of synthy-dance thing. Granted, that impression was purely from glancing at the cover, which is probably a tad unfair. Still, I popped it into the car CD player (the only one I have these days outside of my computer!) for the drive home and got one hell of a shock.
Instantly, my senses were being assaulted by very loud, very fast rock music. The feeling was actually somewhat similar to the first time I stumbled across Johnny Foreigner. I’m not comparing the two musically as there is a world of difference here, but the underlying feeling was there. The second song blasted out in much the same way. Then the third. It went on like this until the whole record was done, by which time I’d already driven an extra twenty minutes out of my way just to listen through the entire thing. It also meant the disc didn’t leave my car for a week.
From those early listens though, I didn’t quite know what to make of it. It all seemed a bit simplistic, and some of the lyrics are a bit rough around the edges. But after listening through a couple more times, it didn’t seem to matter. I can analyse it as much as I like, but no matter what, I enjoy this record immensely. It’s actually the same way that I can appreciate Be Your Own Pet: far from perfect but bloody entertaining. So ultimately not the best album I’ve heard this year, but damn if it doesn’t have me tapping along with it and driving just that little bit faster.
Ourknife Yourback will be released on June 22 via NRone Records.
Wow… you’re right, this was a total surprise. I’ve been listening to Mika Miko and The Screaming Females all morning and was expecting this to sound like pop music.