Back to the roots of real music, indie vocals and live musicianship built around interesting, engaging and memorable songwriting. Don’t Bother Brother pairs a distinct artist name with an equally recognisable style – The Plan is refreshingly raw, honest and compelling, both in style and substance, and it’s a fine introduction to a boldly unique repertoire.
Presenting as a kind of acoustic grunge or folk-punk crossover, with this acoustic guitar and rhythmic meeting, plus the unfiltered indie identity of the voice, The Plan is lyrically beautiful, and this intertwines with the humanity of the performance perfectly well. ‘Smile till I die’ rings out and resounds, and you’re hooked on the melody and groove, the catchy pattern of the hook – an anthemic peak that keeps you coming back to notice more and more introspective and relatably poignant thoughts on life.
Don’t Bother Brother takes many of the evocative guitar sounds of a simpler era, and crafts upwards into a full-band sound that’s just as nostalgic. Then we get the songwriting, the purity and fearless vulnerability of the voice, and songs like Glory hold closely to the same set-up, whilst veering away in both concept and overall mood.
The instrumental here is a little more spacious when the voice emerges, letting the spotlight shine on these ideas and poetic reflections, and then it drops back in – bass guitar, acoustic strumming, live drums, all lifting the energy in between these somewhat tired contemplations.
The emotion is powerful, the subtle reverb and the crack of the voice, and the melody is brilliant – the modestly repeating lines at the end, ‘exactly what she wants’ and other striking moments again reaching out to grip and linger.
Finally, we move into layers of dreamy electric guitar, and a canned / industrial vocal line that’s robotic and rigid in relaying another impressively smart and captivating lyrical journey. The style is so varied once again, but the roots remain – Don’t Bother Brother has a fiercely unique way of taking feelings shared by many, and expressing or framing them in a way that just feels new and makes sense and satisfies.
‘I can’t be your favourite bookmark‘ is the pinnacle of this neo-classical alterantive song, but as ever, there’s so much complexity woven into the verses and the build up, and the music naturally demands that you listen more than once, and aptly rewards you when you do.
If the programmed slop of the modern mainstream has left you exhausted, re-energise with something unapologetically genuine, in musicality and writing, in performance and structure. Don’t Bother Brother delivers a catalogue of music that’s perfectly in tune with the exasperation implied by his name, and with an elusive visual image to match, intrigue and deeply human sentiments prove notably enthralling.
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