Creaky Boards - Yup, That's About Right
From Doo-Wop to Anti-Folk, Brooklyn Is Love aims high, and almost hits its target. Almost.
Creaky Boards
Brooklyn is Love
Released on Nov 04, 2008
There’s something about taking what Brian Wilson did and repurposing it that a lot of bands just can’t get away from. This would all be fine – who am I to comment on originality? – if only the material that resulted was of as high a quality as Pet Sounds or Smile. The Creaky Boards, get close to hitting the nail close enough on the head to drive it into the coffin of the haters, but not quite.
There’s a certain smugness in the delivery of the entire album, Brooklyn Is Love. It begins with “The Songs I Didn’t Write” (I won’t comment on the fiasco surrounding its melody in relation to a Coldplay song, but check out the video here). The song is pleasant enough, filled with a hook and bell part that can get the most tired of feet moving.
Quickly though, there’s a delve into the cheese factor denser than cheddar. “Now I’m In The City” features Hoepfner attempting to sing harmonies with countless other singers. But when you miss a particularly high target, you’re bound to fall particularly far. So it goes with all of the blatant Beach Boys riffing throughout the album. The band likes to refer to it as anti-folk, but that feels like more of an excuse for deliberate complication than any sort of real talent for arrangement.
There are standout tracks though. “I’m So Serious (This Time)” should have been played during every single ‘50s dance and is cinematic and poignant enough to fit in with any period piece on the doo-wop era. “Brooklyn” features a horn section and an ambivalent take on the city I call home that I’ve yet to hear illustrated quite so well: “It’s a very nice, very nice, very nice place to live/if you can adopt/if you walk fast/if you can forgive forgive forgive.” Shouting out to street names at the end feels a little forced, but it’s one of the best and most accessible songs, so I’ll let a few particularly lame moments slide.
Nearing the end of the album though, the album begins to wear thing. “I’m Touching the Electric Fence” is a particularly self-deprecating whine-fest that the band just doesn’t mesh with well. Songs like this one aren’t just weighed down by overwrought lyrics like, “He said that I faked sorrow/and that I wasn’t even sad,” there’s a disconnect between the tone of Hoepfner’s voice and the music. I can’t tell whether this could have been fixed by taking more time in mastering or if it’s just one of those quirks that you can’t repair, but something needs to be done.
All in all, Brooklyn Is Love is a decent album. It’s worth a listen, particularly to hear a well-conducted rip-off of the Phil Spector/Brian Wilson sound which, though I’ve used the word rip-off, is always a joy (I’m just that into Wilson). The particularly doo-wop-y tracks are of particular note, but a bit too much of the album drags its knuckles on the floor.
High Point
“Brooklyn” is a cohesive triumph, blending the ambivalent undertone with a particularly well-conducted romp through as many different paces as possible in one song.
Low Point
“A Low Level of Trust” is so whiney and mournful that it makes me want to hate the rest of the album. Creaky Boards need to learn that it’s okay to not be good at being sad.
Posted by Mark Steffen on Feb 10, 2009 @ 6:00 am