Brakes
Touchdown
(FatCat, 2009)

People will accuse the new Brakes record of pointlessness (if they know who Brakes are, that is), which will bring up a good discussion of what the point of Brakes was in the first place. People mostly hate novelty bands, side projects, and particularly junctions of the two that grow in seriousness as they go. Occasionally, a hit helps. These guys don’t have one. And what’s more, they stole a member of a more serious band who people like, British Sea Power’s Eamon Hamilton, who adores playing an under loved alt-rock archetype: The bald shrieky guy. Of course, I’m speaking from my post in America, where I nabbed the debut Give Blood from a dollar bin, not Britain, where the same record was voted #1 by Rough Trade Shop. The even better follow-up Beatific Visions seemed to stall everywhere; who wouldn’t want to hear a Frank Black clone spazzing “Porcupine or pineapple?! Porcupine or pineapple?!” in their ear? I guess it’s just me then.

Barring an iPod commercial appearance or some minor airplay coup for “Oh! Forever”, the new Touchdown looks to fare even worse—third album by novelt-ish side project of minor critic heroes anyone? As such, expectations are simpler: Dimmer production, more jam-with-hooks than full-fledged melodies, and no Pipettes guest spot (they—she?—ain’t faring so well themselves these days). There’s not a one-minute dick joke or a sweeping country ballad in sight. What that leaves, and what Fall fans and Rough Trade shoppers should know so well, is a moving-to-keep-moving album, another ground out in the finest Hüsker Dü or Fall fashion for spontaneity, not expedience, even if it’s their least spontaneous yet.

But there’s no bad blood, it’s just a different angle to view their simple setup. Take the most combed-over track, “Leaving England”, which closes Touchdown in a folksy mood. Hamilton could be opening a Homeward Bound-style adventure film with his determination to “see what [he] can find” beyond “borders that will never hold me” and ultimately settles on the eponymous action. If you thought those quotes weren’t very special, you’re right. Rather than soar, it swims to a coda, and it works fine. It’s certainly no “No Return”, the best Brakes song extant, a five-minute tearjerker that capped the more frenzied last album with a meditation on how “the pain of being together is more than being apart.” But I’m more relieved than surprised that these ramshackle tune-nuts are still putting out good records at all, much less another half-hour masterpiece. Let the syrup-simple tunes grow, and Touchdown gets closer than you first think.

Besides the low-rent aesthetic, the biggest change is Hamilton’s voice, which drones familiar hooks over a two-chord attack not entirely unlike the Velvet Underground, whom their onetime rivals-in-cheek Art Brut can’t stand. The pleasures are basic; “Two Shocks”, “Why Tell the Truth (When It’s Easier to Lie)”, and “Crush on You” won’t make you think too hard to recall their blunt bluster. The title “Eternal Return” is both a cute joke about novelty acts and nice reminder that minor bands don’t all go away. Touchdown is really more of a field goal, and Brakes probably know it, but they also know that’s still a goal.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]