Ever have a week with too much to
do and not enough time to do it? Of course you have. Well I’m having one right
now.
Disc 1120 is… Middle Brother (Self-Titled)
Artist: Middle
Brother
Year of Release: 2011
What’s up with the Cover? Three hip cats just hanging out.
John McCauley is wearing a Black Flag shirt which probably means he’s a fan,
but there’s a chance he’s being ironic. There’s no way to know with these hipsters
without asking, and I don’t have his number.
How I Came To Know It: Middle Brother was ranked #93 on
Paste Magazine’s “100 Top indie folk albums of all time”. I’m not sure I
would rank them #93, but I know a lot of folk albums and it is a seriously good
one. I would have had it sooner but it was filed under “Deer Tick” at my local
record store. More on why in a minute.
How It Stacks Up: This is the only Middle Brother album so it
can’t stack up.
Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4
When it
comes to super groups there are plenty genres other than rock and roll where
big names come together to do something new. “Middle Brother” is indie
folk-rock’s answer to the super group.
But how
super are they? The incorporate the core songwriting talents from the bands
Deer Tick (John McCauley), Dawes (Taylor Goldsmith) and Delta Spirit (Matt
Vasquez). I have two Dawes albums, had vaguely heard of Deer Tick and didn’t
know who Delta Spirit was, so I wasn’t terribly impressed at the outset.
However, Youtube puts these bands at a few hundred thousand hits up to two
million, which for an indie band is pretty damned super. Jason Isbell even
guests on guitar.
OK, so
there are some big (for the genre) names here but is the music any good? Yes,
it is. Middle Brother’s three principle songwriters all know their craft well
and while they wear their influences on their sleeves, they wear them well. I’m
not sure what tracks Isbell are on, but the guitar work throughout is excellent.
The
album hearkens back to the early crossover days of folk, country and rock and both
the songs and their delivery had me thinking of the Byrds and Flying Burrito
Brothers. This is partly the nasal delivery of at least two of the “brothers”
reminding me of Roger McGuinn but it goes deeper than that, and is found in the
celebratory jangle present in even the sadder songs.
I also
felt the influence of early rock and roll, and on “Me Me Me” I felt like half the A section was from Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel.” At
any moment I was expecting at least one ‘brother’ to walk down to a preacher
and say “I do”.
As you
would expect from three accomplished songwriters there are some beautiful turns
of phrase. The album begins with “Daydreaming”
a sublimely plucked guitar and the lines:
“Early in the morning too hung over to go
back to sleep
Every sound is amplified, every
light so dizzying.
Listen for a while to the
neighbours having sex
Wishing I could lay my aching
head upon your breast.”
Great
stuff from John McCauley, but every one of the trio has equally great stuff on
the record. Unfortunately, it feels like they cram all their best material onto
the front half of the record, and my favourite songs are the first six.
The last
of those is “Portland,” the album’s
only cover, features a jaunty high-voiced guitar that provides the perfect
juxtaposition to the song’s themes of collapse and decadence. When I went to
Youtube to hear the Replacements original I found myself disappointed. With its
rounded tones and eighties production it just lacked the poignancy that Middle
Brother manages to generate with their stark and honest delivery.
After “Portland” the album took a slightly
downward turn. “Wilderness” is solid,
with some great turns of phrase (my favourite: “I plan to be the kind of person that when he drinks, he disappoints”)
but kind of lost me at the refrain, which isn’t a good place for a song to lose
you.
After
this there are a series of songs that reminded me of early Beatles, which would
be great if you like early Beatles, but it isn’t my thing. “Million
Dollar Bill” is a pretty ending to the record, and I liked it, but as songs of lost love and regret go, I preferred the earlier track “Thanks for Nothing.”
These
are minor quibbles, though, and the only real issue I had with Side Two was
that it couldn’t match the sheer brilliance of Side One. Most records wish they
could have that problem.
This is
a record worth owning, and I left it with a strong sense that it will grow on
me more and more with repeat listens.
Best
tracks: Daydreaming,
Blue Eyes, Thanks for Nothing, Middle Brother, Theatre, Portland
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