Pernice Brothers - Live a Little
by Andrew Carver
published: 22 / 10 / 2006

Label:
One Little Indian
Format: CD
intro
Latest album of high quality pop from the increasingly experimental Pernice Brothers
The Pernice Brothers have put out so many consistently excellent pop music albums that there is a grave risk of fans becoming jaded. The band seems to fear the risk as well, because they’ve larded the 12 high-calibre songs on ‘Live A Little’ with strangely divergent bridges and curious segues. Exhibit A is the leading track ‘Automaton’, which sounds like a half dozen other good Pernice Brothers songs welded together and bridged with blurts of new wave, chamber pop and Spanish guitar. ‘Microscopic View’ trots along on a web of hand percussion and violin before bursting into the lusher pop strains. ‘Live a Little’ also merges the sound of early Brothers with the tougher sound of this album's predecessor, ‘Discover a Lovelier You’. The band recorded with Michael Deming, who produced their first efforts, and once again words like “second violin” and “flugelhorn” grace the credits. The Pernice Brothers haven't, however, made a complete return to their chamber-pop origins. At the same time Peyton Pinkerton delivers some potent fretwork, and James Walborne steps out from behind the piano to play some stinging leads on ‘Somerville’. The album ends by neatly tying Joe Pernice’s music together with ‘Grudge Fuck’, a song he recorded with the Scud Mountain Boys.
Track Listing:-
1 Automaton2 Somerville
3 Cruelty To Animals
4 Zero Refills
5 Microscopic View
6 How Can I Compare
7 B.S. Johnson
8 PCH One
9 Conscience Clean (I Went To Spain)
10 Lightheaded
11 High As A Kite
12 Grudge F*** (2006)
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reviews |
The World Won't End (2001) |
Having elected to release a pair of solo projects in the meantime, ‘Chappaquiddick Skyline’ and ‘Big Tobacco’ respectively, Joe Pernice has at last seen fit to release the bona fide sequel to the Pern |
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