Album Review – Brother of Monday by Brother of Monday (2022) (Self released)
With so many superb alt. jangle-pop acts releasing albums in 2022 (think of The Smashing Times, Mo Troper, and Flowertown for the best of the spurious lot), it is great to see that this eponymous Brother of Monday debut album looks set to continue 2023 in a similarly obtuse fashion.
A Paisley Shirt Records or Painter Man Records signing waiting to happen, this enigmatic act (no social media, no mention of the name of the artiste…you know “that sort”) from Newark, Delaware, drifts through three predominant nuances of gloriously weird, all of which he augments with his version of what jangle-pop could be in the hands of the more imaginative.
Initially, Bro Out, Tomb Falcons, and Wickedy Splits are so intensely lo-fi they should be termed no-fi and are reminiscent of Daniel Johnston finding discarded Neutral Milk Hotel melodies and twisting brilliant anti-tunes out of the musical debris. Each one will compel those who can embrace an originality born from a starting point of total difference and the artists total indifference to any conceivable traditional song structure in equal measures.
The Jeff Magnum-style nasal infractions and indie-fuzz continue in Stacking Apples and The Festival of Booths. Here, the intensity increases as the tracks approach mid-tempo and the sound of aforementioned The Smashing Times and Flowertown are embraced like that old mad uncle everyone only sees at family weddings and funerals who can command a room with the strength of his bizarre but compelling story telling.
However, the very best of this release is heard in the tracks that finally break the mid-tempo sound barrier. Here, Look It In, Stocker and Uncle Sprout assume the heavy, frenetic bassline / treble mix of The Replacements and juxtapose it with the fuzzy power-pop inflections that are reminiscent of the recent Mo Troper vibe.
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