If The Starting Line were this years New Found Glory, then Brodie are definitely going to be next years The Starting Line, if that makes any sense whatsoever. With a sound that fits snugly onto the Drive Thru Records roster of pop-punktastic bands, this Seattle foursome have somehow managed to end up on the English label 20 Deck Records and will be bringing their brand of punk rock to the UK early in the New Year. But what sets this little lot apart from the myriad of other bands that bang out the same style of pop-punk?
Well to be fair Brodie are actually damn good. Boasting a slick, yet not overly produced sound, they also have the melodic tunes to boot giving some of the more well-known bands a good kick up the arse and offering a wake up call to some of the big name bands who’s last efforts were certainly not up to scratch. (Home Grown anyone?) To be fair some of these songs will have you singing along quicker than an S Club number, such is the ferocity and catchiness of each track. Of course there is the chance that you may have heard some of these songs before as Brodie are one of the most popular bands on Mp3.com, and ‘When I’m With You’, their first official European release does feature some of these efforts. But where some of those tracks fall down because they go on a little too long, ‘When I’m With You’ cuts out the crap and punches out catchy pop song after catchy pop song. Knowing Brodie‘s songs reasonably well,the only disappointing thing here is the lack of ‘Stupid Bastard’, one of my favourite songs by the band.
‘BC Anthem’ kicks things off and unlike the name, doesn’t go all Good Charlotte on us. (If you squint a B can look like a G, ok…) It is pretty dumb lyrically but musically is everything you’d expect from the band if you are a fan of their previous work. As I’ve mentioned, the production is nice and thick, perfect for a record of this genre. ‘My Day Off’ is a little generic but still a decent song, but it’s the fantastic ‘When I’m With You’ that really starts to warm things up. OK, it’s a little obvious lyrically but pop-punk has never been about writing theologies on the Roman Empire or something else equally complicated and dull. And boy is it catchy… coming across as well as anything on the current The Starting Line record I might add.
‘Good Guy – Bad Luck’ has touches of Rufio thrown in for good measure, and is again as catchy as a contageous disease, while ‘Crazy Night’ unfortunately isn’t the singular version of the Kiss classic, nodding more towards Brodie‘s famed pop-punk stylings. Which you may have guessed by now is a good thing. Similarly ‘The One’ isn’t a cover of the last Foo Fighters song, instead it’s a roughed-up version of an old Brodie track, tacked onto the end of this record as a bonus track and showing how far the band have come on since their conception. To be honest mind this is a very good song, as is the fantastic ‘Perfect Girl’, which, although as generic as it sounds, is as good an example of the perfect pop-punk song as you’ll come across this year.
‘When I’m With You’ is an improvement on ‘Demo One’ and the future for Brodie looks good. Sure, this is nothing groundbreaking, but as I’ve always said, not much can beat a good, solid pop-punk record when you’re in need of an easy listen and you could do a lot worse than Brodie. Fans of New Found Glory and The Starting Line will lap this up – and for just £5 from www.20deck.com, you could do a lot, lot worse.
Paul