Calling it early, this is the album of the year ...(though only if you like The Smiths)..
The lead off track aired by the great WERS college radio station in Boston mid year hinted where Chicago based quintet "Brigitte Calls Me Baby" were going via the Morrisey-ish title "Impressively Average" . However the music was more of a post punk thrash rather than the layered and textured Smiths MO (at times "Motown meets James Honeyman-Scott" era Pretenders) . And lead singer Wes Levins vocal on this track is more Richard Hawley than Morrissey, though still firmly on the British side of the Atlantic (and we will get to his "look" very shortly) . Regardless it is a great 3 mins and set up anticipation nicely for the album release in August.
Having no preconception regarding what would reveal itself over the 11 tracks, the listener is plunged early into the world inhabited for a glorious time by The Smiths circa 1984-87 via the opener & title cut "The Future Is Our Way Out"...
Verse 1
"Now the end is near,
Everyone said this is how it would be
I'm sorry I can't help but cry
And wonder , was the joke on me"
Chorus
"There is a place where I want to be, but I don't know where it is , I don't know where it is"
Oh there is a place where I will be happy , oh there must be , oh there must be"
(The Future Is Our Way Out)
Take your pick at this point from a few Smiths tracks as reference points "Still Ill", "I Want The One I Can't Have", "What She Said". With the extended coda of jangly guitars ( though there is no Johnny Marr in the band, the influence is there amongst the guitar parts shared by Jack Fluegal and Trevor Lynch) and Leavins vocal stylings over the top , you could also be forgiven for thinking "The Boy With The Thorn is His Side" from The Queen is Dead but these are merely the first Smiths references of many.
After the power pop of "Pink Palaces" (more like the Vini Reilly/Morrisey collaborations from Morrissey's first solo album Viva Hate ("I Don't Mind If You Forget Me") rather than The Smiths), we arrive at track three "Eddie My Love" and we need to talk about Leavins' "look".
Ironically or not he already had the attention of Baz Lurhman to contribute to the Elvis movie and on this track, vocally it is not hard to see why. His crooning style has overtones of early 60's operatic Elvis - "Surrender", "My Wooden Heart" or "Marie's the Name of the Latest Flame". With the latter reference we can draw a through line from Elvis Presley to The Smiths . Anyone remember the live album Rank , where The Smiths segued "Marie's the Name" into "Rusholme Ruffians" from Meat is Murder? ...same rhythm same chords ., essentially the same song (see below). In a further twist the band blatantly (?) references The La's "There She Goes" as part of the guitar based hook preceding each verse. As for the lyrics, no one did gender ambiguity better than Morrisey noting Levins seems to use the masculine "Eddie".
We are essentially at the money shot moment with Track 5 "I Wanna Die In The Suburbs" . This is the iconic Morrisey/Marr "The Light That Never Goes Out" moment rendered nearly 40 years (!) later by the Brigette Calls Me Baby team. Over an upbeat rhythm track we have this lyric pure Smiths light & shade.
Chorus
Oh I wanna die in your four car garage
Turn out the lights then send in the entourage
Tell them all it's okay, I made my big mistake
But I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die alone
(I Wanna Die in the Suburbs)
Contrast with The Smiths
And if a Double Decker Bus, crashes into us
To die by your side, is such a heavenly place to die
And if a ten tonne truck kills the both of us
To die by your side, the pleasure , the privilege is mine
(There Is A Light That Never Goes Out)
Musically, we are referencing "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" a jangle fest of Marr influenced guitar parts.
In an odd twist via track 6 "Too Easy" we are still firmly in the 80's but the reference point is now Kim Carnes and "Bette Davis Eyes" with the guitar riff and accompanying beat. Vocally though Levins goes full Simple Minds New Gold Dream and adopts impressive Jim Kerr-isms. Make no mistake this guy can sing (in a way the likes of Morrissey could only aspire to)
In the pleasant "Palm of Your Hand" (Track 07) the spectre of Morrissey is back via this amusing & clever rhyming couplet ...
"I'm not a narcissist but I am hard to resist"
(Palm Of Your Hand)
The other single "We Were Never Alive" complete with an Andy Rourke style bass solo from Jack Fluegel, similarly placed near the end of the track and the layered guitars pays homage to "Barbarism Begins At Home" from Meat is Murder.
The rockabilly styled "You Are Only Made Of Dreams" (unbelievably) channels some of Johnny Marr's work with The The and you can sense that Levins could do a mean Matt Johnson impersonation if required.
Final track "Always Be Fine" is a come down tone and tempo wise (complete with brushes via drummer Jermey Benshish) finding Leavin's in a reflective tone, it would not be out of place on a Chris Isaak record (yes the 80's again!)
Verse
Don't get attached to all of this
Life's the one thing I can't make stick around
Don't get attached to conciousness
It'll only let you down
(Alway's Be Fine)
This is more "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" the regrettably brief Smiths track from Hatful of Hollow.
Make no mistake this appropriation of the Smiths is audacious and if nothing else , makes great trainspotting, noting it is more than slightly disingenuous to not mention the Smiths influence in their bio (instead The Strokes are cited which is not obvious at all). And the 80's are all over big current day acts like The Killers and Vampire Weekend to name only two.
Leavins & co get away with it not least because wry humour is decidedly lacking in most music these days and the combination of the (sympathetic) musicianship, the arrangements and the the vocal prowess of Leavins means it can't miss. But only if you like The Smiths...or Elvis...
#brigettecallsmebaby #impressivelyaverage #thesmiths #eddiemylove #meatismurder #thequeenisdead #thereisalightthatnevergoesout #mariesthename #elvisisalive
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