The
Brides | Sofa City Sweetheart
Dismal Abysmal Recording 1001
Review
by Ross Rice
Next
time you find yourself mourning the death of Rock ‘N’
Roll—or just pissed off about what seems to pass for
it as of late—it might please you to know that some
people haven’t noticed yet. They still re-invent themselves
with comic-book character names, run together lists of cool
song titles, and create their own mythologies. Sometimes,
it even kinda works...
The
Brides make a grand stab at it, with a decidedly glam-rockmeets-
Clash lunge on their CD Sofa City Sweetheart. Starting with
a reverbed minor-key piano interlude, enormous guitars erupt
over a floppy 70’s rhythm section on the opener “Needs
and Luxuries.” Though all four members [guitarist Corey
Gorey, bassist GregJaw, keyboardist Julia Ghoulia, and drummer
D.W.Friend] get lead vocal time, it’s the guys who get
more action, getting a more husky Bowie sound on the first
songs, moving into Cars’ territory on “New Shocks.”
But, it’s Ghoulia who provides the secret-weapon female
voice to the disco-ball sound of “Who Cares If You Dance,”
as well as the drone-y “Put Me Back To Sleep.”
The Brides hit a lot of the right spots on the dial, while
taking their sweet time through the transistions—“Chances
With Girls” and “Just Because Your Days Are Numbered”
shine through in the melody department—but this CD wears
down a bit until the hard-ass growl of “Noir Awake”
and the full-band chorus of closer “Soviet Vogue”
[“you and me know we’ve got nothing left, just
like a Soviet”], closing with fireworkclimax drums.
The
more dramatic Sofa City Sweetheart [ably recorded and mixed
by Jacques Cohen at The Space, Poughkeepsie] gets both musically
and vocally, and the more they employ the male/female vocal
combo, the more fun it is to party with them. Of course, Rock
‘N’Roll is still dead, but don’t let that
spoil the wedding.
|
