Album review: Broods, Evergreen

Other

20 Aug, 2014 05:00 PM3 mins to read

The Broods' music is melodramatic but honest.

Hearing Mother & Father - the opening track from local siblings Broods' debut album - for the first time, is a reminder of what it was like to hear Young Blood by The Naked and Famous when it first came out in 2010.

Not because they sound the same, but because they both encapsulate what it means to feel young and excited and vulnerable so perfectly.

But where TNAF were a little more brash, and wild, and rock 'n' roll, Broods are more moody pop stars. The bpm is lower, the sound palette is much more electronic, there's less angst and more melancholy. And lyrically they're much more intimate.

They talk of longing, guilt, accepting the life you're living, kissing in a darkened hallway, of not wanting to be forgotten. There's homesickness - for a place and a person, and an appealing balance of naivete and confidence.

There's also a maturity, and a timelessness in 20-year-old Georgia Nott's outlook.

"I don't wanna wake up lonely, I don't wanna just be fine, I don't wanna keep on hoping, forget what I had in mind," could be a catchphrase for anyone of any age, it so cleverly sums up human ambition.

Their early EP hits Bridges and Never Gonna Change are rightfully included in the 11 tracks (they're just as good as they were eight months ago), and it's interesting to note that though they fit right in among this new bunch, the remaining songs move beyond the ideas laid out in their EP.

There's still a slightly submerged dreaminess to tracks like Sober and Killing You, but there's a throbbing punch to Everytime, and a mood-lifting airiness to album closer Superstar.

The standout tracks come from two entirely different approaches, however. LAF is filled with these fantastic chopped-up rhythms and syncopated hand claps, and will have you grinning and flailing your limbs around in response to its colourful energy.

In contrast, Four Walls is a grand emotional sucker punch in the mould of a piano ballad. It had the potential to turn into a slightly syrupy hipster wedding song, but in fact holds its own with expertly layered vocal harmonies, and perfectly timed bass drops.

Sure there's plenty of melodrama and a youthful emotional wallowing that winds its way through the album, but also an honesty that makes the tracks resonate.