Br’er – Filled With Guilt and Diamonds
I’ve been dancing rather coyly with Br’er’s music for the last few months, trying to get to the stage where I really could figure out quite what I made of it. It’s tense, but not all that edgy, and can be beautiful, without ever being particularly pretty, and it is experimental but in more of an unsettling than a confrontational way.
It’s not that I intentionally try and pigeonhole music, although I suppose we all do it subconsciously, but it definitely took me a while to decide that with this stuff, I am just not that sure what I am listening to. There are elements of chamber pop, of cinematic indie stuff, of darkly camp musical theatre, and of elaborate orchestration and plenty of other things none of which seem to end up asserting a defining character over the finished article to the extent that I would feel really comfortable trying to express what I think I’m listening to here. I mean, for Christ’s sake, there’s even some Gregorian Chanting in here, or something worryingly close.
In general I suppose it’s the theatre of the thing which grabs me the most. It’s full of very disparate moments of high drama, all exaggerated to the point where most songs at some point have you raising an eyebrow, looking at the stereo, and thinking ‘what the fuck is this?’ with genuine curiosity.
Lyrically, I can’t make out much, to be honest, beyond to confirm the fact that the lyrical imagery seems to chime very much with the impression above: by turns theatrical, experimental, unsettling or flamboyant. Like the rest of the album it’s weird enough that I still don’t know if I love it or might turn out to hate it, but I’m definitely fascinated by it and I do find myself playing it a lot, albeit with the same slightly puzzled look on my face most of the time.
Bre’er – Painted Lady
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Wasn’t expecting a picture of a big willy to appear on my screen at work when I hit refresh then, have to admit.
(I know it’s not actually a big willy, on second glance it looks far more disturbing, and I’m trying to put it out of my mind; but to the lady sitting over the side of the office who can see my screen, it would certainly appear to be a big willy.)
Oh come on. Must happen all the time.
Talk about unsettling! That album cover has had me wiggling about in my chair ever since it loaded up.
You dirty bitch!
Well, if it helps shed any light on the content I can tell you that Centralia is a ghost town in rural Pennsylvania that’s been slowly roasting under the heat of an underground mine fire that’s been burning since the 1960’s. Apparently the hills have been known to glow at night. The only functioning building left is church which still holds services on Sundays. Great fodder for a song or a band name, as we were considering. Shame it’s such a shite, slightly pretentious sounding word. Oh yeah … and obviously it sounds like willies too.