From the outset I want to stress that I’ve never heard any other Blood Brothers record. I can’t say how this compares in quality and style to any of their other records because I just don’t know. I’ve read plenty of reviews suggesting a change in style and how ‘Burn Piano island, Burn’ is better, but I simply cannot say – just before all the inevitable user reviews proclaim how this is shit in comparison to blah blah blah. Truth be told, I approached this record with a little trepidation. Having heard the new Neon Blonde (BB side project) record – which was the oddest concoction of sounds I’ve heard this year – I had preconceptions that this record would be along similar lines. But I was wrong.
With ‘Crimes’ released on V2 I expected a ‘big’ sounding and ‘big’ is what you get – although this is more in the cacophony of sounds the band manage to create rather than the production. Blood Brothers are one hell of an inventive bunch. With yapping and yelping dual vocals, keys, guitars and drums splattered over a catchy yet disturbing mix of, well, everything, I can see now why this lot have inspired so many other recent soundalikes. If ‘Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck’ is as close to a ‘single’ as the band gets, it’s still a mile away from bands such as Finch – who attempted to go down this abrasive, sassy route on ‘Say hello To Sunshine‘ – and their choice of radio hit.
Johnny Whitney’s yelp and whine is as trademarked as they come, sounding nothing like anyone else around. It’s certainly an acquired taste – on tracks like ‘Trash Flavored Trash’ and ‘Rats And Rats And Rats For Candy’ it’s almost like he’s singing with lungs full of helium. What Blood Brothers seem to do remarkably well is mix the vocals of Whitney with co-screamer Jordan Blilie; and when the two go at it at full pelt it’s really something special. See the aforementioned ‘Love…’ for one of the best results. The swagger the band seem to have stems from the quality of their songs. There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance and on ‘Crimes’ the band seem to be able to hit the nail on the head in both departments at will.
To re-iterate what I said at the top, I really cannot compare what this is like to their older material. I have no yardstick to measure against. But what I do know is that this record is clever, catchy and full on brilliant. I expected a mess, but this is organised chaos and with two of the cleverest vocalists around. I certainly intend checking out their older material – if the comments that it’s better than ‘Crimes’ are true, I’m going to be enjoying a great New Year.
www.thebloodbrothers.com
v2
paul