At last the day is upon us. After discovering garage pop brother duo Writer earlier this year, I've been eagerly awaiting the day when their tunes could be mine. And they been pretty helpful on that front releasing 7" singles that you could download on their Bandcamp. But even as I listened to single after single (only three but you get my point), I couldn't help but wonder what a full length from The Brothers Ralph would sound like. Well wonder no more, Writer's debut full length Brotherface is out today.
If you've followed Writer's career at all i.e. downloaded any of their 7"s, the album's tracklist won't be that much of a surprise to you. In fact more than half of it consists of tracks you'd find on the 7"s and singles they've put out so far. And yet that shouldn't dissuade you at all. As I listened to Brotherface, I was shocked by how well it all fit together despite the fact that many of the songs weren't recorded or even written at the same time. But here we are, with Brotherface crashing along with an almost odd cohesiveness. Writer make you work for the newer tracks, lumping them all together at the end of the album instead of dispersing them among the more familiar previously released tracks. Which turns out to work pretty well. And while Writer more or less barrels forward, they're not noisily plodding to the finish line; there's instrumental track "Yamaha Trip" as well as slower moving "North Park Fairies" as well as "Swamp Fire Lake".
Brotherface consists of songs you'd pretty much expect to hear from Writer. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's an enjoyable set of tracks that work surprisingly well together as a whole. If you were a fan of the earlier releases you're more or less getting more of the same. Where the same happens to be gold old fashioned home-made multi-layered clatter-filled rock with a ear for melody. Brotherface follows the "If it ain't broke" style of music-making and does it quite well. It isn't out to challenge and impress you but it's more than just another release under Writer's belt. It's Writer's strengths all laid right out for you: their songs may be short but they're memorable, they're boisterous but never annoyingly so. And that's good enough for me, for now. A likeable record completely free of missteps? A up and coming band can only be so lucky.
Brotherface is out now digitally and available in a very limited edition vinyl run on the UK's 3 Syllable Records here. Writer will also have a handful of records available for purchase on their upcoming east coast but don't sleep on it if you want it. Writer's releases tend to run out fairly quickly.
You can listen to the album via Writer's visual stream on Youtube (don't worry, individual tracks also available):
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