The Brute Chorus - The Brute Chorus

Warning: The following post frequently refers to my opinion as your's . I feel I should point out that I'm not egotistical or insane, just generalising.

At the risk of developing a pattern, this band are just the sort of band I hate. You probably know the sort I mean. They take photos of themselves in Black and White, they make people think they can speak French, they have haircuts and wear coats. Ghastly, isn't it. Except it isn't, and they're not and their album's kind of bitchin'.

You would expect me to say, then, that as soon as you play the first track, Hercules, you realise just how wrong you are. But no, you will experience a cowbell, the word "Hercules" repeated repeatedly, just what you'd expect from a black and white, not french, haircut coat band. It's disgusting, I mean, yeah the lyrics are good and when the tune comes in it's really kind of excellent and actually it's really quite ironic and funny and...

Balls. 
You realise you like it.

Okay. So now, they're not a sickening clone of a "we're so different" band, they actually are a "different" band. Like a turophobe finding the one variety of cheese they're not irrationally afraid of, you will realise that you don't hate all those other bands because of what they are, but because of what they're not. What they're not is Brute Chorus.

In fact, what Brute Chorus are is clever, madcap, experimental, loveable and only pretentious in the very weak manner that only occasionally makes you want to slap them. Yes I find it somewhat disheartening that they try and pretend the album's live by ending every track in applause; we're not fooled, it doesn't seem arty it just seems like you're trying to trick us into thinking you're playing live. You sit there, seething, until the next song lurches into being. It could be Grow Fins*, a little ditty about just going with life / a biblical flood and enjoying it.

"LET'S GROW FINS
Let it rain, oh let it rain"

Quite. And it's happy and manic and sounds like the indie-music equivalent of a brightly coloured clown on an out of control merry-go-round. Except not menacing. You may think you've got a handle on them but then their next song's called Nebuchadnezzar, named for the King who invaded Judah and Jerusalem and enslaved the Jews. There's a lot of that sort of reference.

Blind Ulysses is a moody, ambient ballad. The Cuckoo & The Stolen Heart is a duet with someone who is apparently "Tigs from Fiction", a furious skiffly hoedown of a number about death, deception and d...eath. Send Me a Message is a bitter cannonball of music. My point is that there really is a large amount of stuff here.

If I had to pick a single track as my favourite, though, it'd definitely be Chateux. I know, I know, after all I said about the French thing, you really can call me a hypocrite for this one. But come on, listen to it and disagree. It's the story of a dilapidated house set to, to all intents and purposes, random chords. It shouldn't work. It shouldn't work at all. But it really does. Completely. If you're not going to bother listening to the whole album, you have to at least listen to Chateux, come on, for me.

"I was lonely when you got here, I'll be lonely when you go,

So why should I let you in, my dear, that's what I'd like to know."

I do advise you to listen to it though, it's crazy stuff. And yet there's not a bit that doesn't work (except for the "live" thing). But, as so often happens when I'm in the process of writing these things, they've released a new album. I'll just do a quick review of it, just to stop you moaning.

This be the first single from it:



It's a little bit more grown up, as an album. It's more serious. There's no cannonballs, clowns or cheese, just good, clever, drummy indie tunes. And yet... when I listened to the first album for the first time I couldn't stop. I pretty much listened to it twice through and added half the tracks to my playlist right away. There's none of the with How the Caged Bird Sings. Don't get me wrong, it's not at all soulless or bad or anything; Lazarus, Could this be Love and Whipping Boy are excellent songs. In fact, most of them are. As a cohesive (or maybe not, maybe that's the thing) album, The Brute Chorus is just fantasticer. 


If you are a member of The Brute Chorus reading this after Googling the name, then do not be disheartened. I LOVE YOU, although I love 2009 you better than 2010 you and I feel I should not love either of you. Maybe I am just an indie tosser after all. I love it.

Goodbye.
That was a long one...

(I have since published this)

*The status of connection to Captain Beefheart's song of the same name is unknown.

Jamie Cullum - The Pursuit

SPLINK (spotify link, you see)

It is a truth universally acknowledged that some preconceptions are just right; Coldplay really are a bit too pretentious, Lily Allen's accent is ridiculous and, in respect to today's topic, Jamie Cullum's kind of slappable.

...and he's mean to pianos

So I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when I listened to The Pursuit (his last album, it's not new or anything, I just thought I'd accidentally slap something if I listened to it) and found that his music is entirely non-slapworthy. If you've listened to Amy Winehouse's Frank and thought "This is quite good, but I just wish she was a man, I'm not a bigot or anything, I just think women should stay in the crack-den." then you might just agree with me. Now, that's not a perfect analogy for at least 2 reasons. 1, that you could well like it if you haven't thought that and 2, that you might not like it if you have. But what can you do?

The album (remember the album, this is a blog about the album*) is a jazzy, poppy, rocky, hippitty-hoppitty affair but with the emphasis heavily on the jazzy bit. Of course, Jimmy C's pianoing fingers feature heavily, and there's solos and scatting and organs and saxes and bongos and everything you'd expect from a jazz thing. That being said, most of the tracks are pop-music lengths and there's "Rawking on the Daancefloor, actin nawty", which is something they do quite a lot in popular music isn't it? It's accessible, often loungey jazz that's hardly going to cause any revolutions but equally won't scare anyone away.

The overall tone isn't overly different to, say, Frank and is surprisingly varied. It can be upbeat-OH, Youtube video! Sorry, it's been a while.


As I was saying, the album does stuff like that, and then goes and does something verging on proper jazz and will then go spiralling off into actual pop like you've blown the tail rotor right off it's helicopter. Luckily, before crashing into the wooded hills of normalcy it uses a big jazzy parachute and somehow soars into the sky, breaking all laws of logic as it does so. I think I love is pure lounge, well it's got a string section too, but apart from that it's just James and his piano in a slow, plinky-plinkplonk-plonky. Then KABOOPH! straight in with We Run Things Another Way an odyssey in drum loops and layered synths. Then comes a cover of Not While I'm Around, that song from the end of Sweeney Todd.

The Pursuit may not be cutting edge stuff, but it's a well-thought out, stylish album that'll appeal to most of the people with ears. It's well balanced, diverse and manages to pull off everything it tries to do. It's even got a couple of singles that you'll have heard. Wheels, I'm all Over it, Mixtape, you may not be able to hum any of them at the moment but you'll remember them if you listen through the album.

Speaking of which, for all I know you've already listened to it, it could be popular for all I know. I'm so out of touch. He's got a new one out now, Devil May Care, which I'd have reviewed if I'd have listened to it yet. It's much more "proper jazz" than this one and will almost certainly be worth a listen. It looks like this:

Cullum is also host of Radio 2's Jazz show (LINK) which is definitely worth a listen every week.

The moral of this post is that just because you want to physically hurt a person doesn't mean they don't make an excellent album. Well probably 2 excellent albums. And a radio show. And actually, seeing as I haven't listened to any of his older albums, they're probably good too. And he's friends with Clint Eastwood.

Moral...


*500 points if you can name me that reference


EDIT: Devil May Care appears to be a compilation of collaborations, so I'll let myself off a bit.