The Brunettes: Structure and Cosmetics (Lil' Chief/Rhythmethod)

 |   |  1 min read

The Brunettes: Her Hairagami Set
The Brunettes: Structure and Cosmetics (Lil' Chief/Rhythmethod)

The quirky and sometimes playful pop of Auckland's Brunettes gets a real workout here: whether it be enjoying the left speaker/right speaker game on Stereo (Mono Mono); referencing Tommy James and the Shondells' 60s hit Crimson and Clover on their delicate Credit Card Mail Order; offering a title such as Obligatory Road Song; or simply bending melodies like origami paper in order to create their oddly shaped but quite perfect little pop masterpieces.

There is something disarmingly charming in a song which says "if you were an alien, I'd call you my Martian man" and, in being supported a lovely tune, it rises above the twee factor.

That said, there is also a slightly more introspective tone throughout this album -- perhaps as a result of being recorded in part in Portland, New York and Los Angeles, and that the protagonists (Jonathan Bree and Heather Mansfield) are no longer a couple?

As regards the latter, it certainly hasn't changed the fact they make helium-injected pop full of lyrical whimsy (the gorgeous Small Town Crew, If You Were Alien, the title track) and delicately realised on piano, glockenspiel, melodica, clarinet as well as guitars, synths and drums.

Bree and Mansfield have often played off each other in songs which are dialogues but here they do that with great confidence: that speaker play takes nerve and could have been a crashing embarrassment had it been overdone.

And on the more brooding Wall Poster Star they come off like a post-teenage Whose Afraid of Virgina Woolf? as played by a very polite Ken and Barbie.

It might be the smartest song they have written. Although that compliment could also go to the title track, a kind of Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazlewood shadowplay full of the menace of love fading behind the illusions of happiness.

Yes, mature and intelligent indeed. But that song is at the far end of an album which opens with the handclap pop-rock of Brunettes Against Bubblegum Youth ("b-a-b-y, I love to call you baby"). This album is quite a journey but each port of call is a self-contained world in itself.

In Wall Poster Star they sing, "cute and contrived, sure. But don't think it untrue". You have to agree.

Utterly engaging pop, with many twists.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Neil Watson: Studies in Tubular (neilwatson.co.nz/Southbound)

Neil Watson: Studies in Tubular (neilwatson.co.nz/Southbound)

Guitarist Neil Watson is a man with an impeccable track record of appearances on albums by Mel Parsons, the Finn Brothers, Caitlin Smith and more than a dozen others. He's a man who can sit... > Read more

Adjiri Odametey: Ekonklo/Other Side (bandcamp)

Adjiri Odametey: Ekonklo/Other Side (bandcamp)

This delightful 13-song album came to Elsewhere direct from Ghanaian-born, Berlin-based singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Odametey. He seduces you in with the intimate Kootse but then... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Olcay Bayir: Tu Guli (ARC Music/digital outlets)

Olcay Bayir: Tu Guli (ARC Music/digital outlets)

This London-based Kurdish Anatolian singer was born in Turkey, studied opera singing in London but returned to the music of the broad Anatolia region with a series of albums and EPs which have won... > Read more

Far North Queensland, Australia: The writing's on the wall

Far North Queensland, Australia: The writing's on the wall

If you're heading south on the Mulligan Highway from Cooktown in Australia's Far North and turn off onto Shiptons Flat Rd towards Lion's Den Hotel, chance are you're going to the Lion's Den... > Read more