BROODS – Space Island: 13th Floor Album Review

BROODS cruise through their Space Island album on their familiar Indie Pop vehicle but the landscapes they navigate are invested in strong emotions of heartbreak and loss.

At least for singer Georgia Nott. The female Yin to the male Yang of Caleb Nott, instruments and gadgets.

BROODS are siblings from a musical family growing up in Nelson, New Zealand. She studied Popular Music at University whilst he looked to Engineering.

The turbulence of emotions that accompany a divorce has been for Georgia a catharsis from which some of the songs on this album have germinated from.

A favourite is Like a Woman. Starts with a thrilling burst of Gospel Pop vocals. Then settles back into a husky lower register and a soulful delivery. I felt so safe in a bubble you made/ But I never felt like a woman to you. The subdued music opens out into a pyrotechnic burst of beats and synths before calming down into resolution. I’ve come a long way.

The painful experience until the hurt is transformed into a blessing. There is a connection back to the classic Sixties Pop of the Supremes. Love is Like an Itching in my Heart.

Goodbye World, Hello Space Island introduces the retro approach of the musical atmosphere. The sounds of Space Invaders. Hints of the Telstar sounds of Joe Meek, who is really one of the originators of Electronica Pop.

Piece of my Mind has a smooth groove and frantic lyrics. I get high/ Trying to get away from my mind/ Trying to get away from my life. 

Distance and Drugs. Spacey synths pleasantly wash through the song like a sun-drenched beach. I used to remember/ When we used to scream in the streets/ I still in love.

I Keep with Tove Lo. The title is a repeated refrain which becomes a two-step electronic Pop Disco. Simple pleasures.

Days are Passing Away. Dreamy Electro-Pop but with a flute sound which must come from the gadgets and it becomes pastoral and Folk. There seem to be man-made beats in tandem with the synth ones.

Gaslight is a highlight of beautiful vocals in the high register and the music drops down to let the singer shine and drop this revelation about the bonds of a relationship. No one loves you like I do/ No one hurts you like I do. Pleasure and pain are intertwined.

If You Fall in Love takes in to the dance floor to finish on a Pop Disco high. Some of the older tones of Santo and Johnny’s Sleepwalk close it out.

BROODS on Space Island may travel over a desolate rocky desert as in the accompanying videos, but their vessel pulls them through to the promised land, the Land of a Thousand Dances.

Rev Orange Peel    

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