Bitter Pills is a DIY indie record from ex-members of a ton of bands that I don’t know a lot about, including Broccoli, a name that has crept up many a time but I was clearly a couple of years too young for. And I don’t get to say that very often. This here EP is 7 tracks of rough round the edges recordings of guys wanting to play guitar pop. The press release cites Teenage Fanclub as a sound alike, and that’s a damn good description. I was thinking Ash at their more melodic, and maybe more recent Cure, but you could substitute just about any upbeat 90s band’s name in there.
This is a nice easy going record, even if the production seems to blur the whole thing when it deserves clarity. The tunes have a certain something about them, a lazy focus and plenty of hooks, along with the obligatory saturation of outrageous amounts of backing vocals and slightly homoerotic ooohs and aaaahs. The cover and maybe even the band name suggest a lack of imagination, but there are a couple of real gems on here. And the whole think smacks of playing music out of passion, not in a bid to get well known, which is always nice to see. It won’t set the world on fire, but it’s an enjoyable little EP this one.
Mike