Tom Brosseau - Posthumous Success
by Sarah Maybank
published: 8 / 5 / 2009

Label:
Fat Cat Records
Format: CD
intro
Self-mocking latest album from North Dakota-born singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau, which looks to pre-war America for inspiration and then merges it with the more contemporary
Acoustic guitar-toting, North Dakota native Tom Brosseau has an unassuming demeanour, a bit of a girl’s voice, and an olde worlde-style website done up in the style of your granny’s parlour – if she had been your granny way back in, say, 1900. The kind of lily-livered credentials, then, to have baying crowds screaming, "Throw him to the James Blunt fans." However, A-list patronage from John Parish and PJ Harvey (Parish produced the album, Brosseau’s about to support Parish and Peej on tour) mean we should be expecting something more meaty than Blunt’s sausage factory of warbling pseudo-emotion. And we’d be right. As wry as the self-mocking title suggests, ‘Posthumous Success’ is a 12-strong set of stories gently spun over scuffed-up percussion and sparingly plucked guitars. But the thing that probably captivated Harvey and Parish is Brosseau’s playful knack of subverting his own wide-eyed troubadour image. His influences are all over the place – and many of them nowhere near the ‘acoustica’ section. There must be some Nine Inch Nails lurking in his record collection, if the industrial noise clanging atonally in the background of ‘You Don’t Know’ is anything to go by, while ‘Drum Roll’, all about stage star Miss Lucy getting ready to step into the spotlight, evokes Lou Reed’s sneery, street-savvy delivery, if a lot lighter on the sleaze. ‘Boot Hill’, meanwhile, consists of little more than ambient noise, some female oooh-ooohs and a twanging jew’s harp. There’s nothing new in lacing a genre as old as the hills and as familiar and comfy as a pair of well-worn shoes with a grab-bag of modern flourishes – hello Beck. But it takes a deft touch to stop it sounding like a pig’s ear. A big hand, then, to Mr Posthumous Success.
Track Listing:-
1 Favourite Colour Blue2 Been True
3 Big Time
4 Boothill
5 You Don't Know My Friends
6 New Heights
7 Youth Decay
8 Drumroll
9 Miss Lucy
10 Axe & Stump
11 Chandler
12 Wishbone Medallion
13 Favourite Colour Blue (2)
Label Links:-
http://www.fat-cat.co.uk/https://www.facebook.com/FatCatRecords
http://fatcat-records.tumblr.com/
https://www.youtube.com/fatcatrecords
https://twitter.com/FatCatRecords
reviews |
Cavalier (2008) |
![]() |
Consistently pleasant, but unstriking 50's and 60's-influenced acoustic folk on British debut album proper from American singer-songwriter, Tom Brosseau |
most viewed articles
current edition
Spear Of Destiny - InterviewRobert Forster - Interview
Fiona Hutchings - Interview
When Rivers Meet - Waterfront, Norwich, 29/5/2025
Carl Ewens - David Bowie 1964 to 1982 On Track: Every Album, Every Song
Brian Wilson - Ten Songs That Made Me Love...
Chris Wade - Interview
Pistol Daisys - Waterfront, Norwich, 29/5/2025
Credits - ARC, Liverpool, 17/5.2025
Gary Numan - Berserker
most viewed reviews
current edition
Peter Doolan - I Am a Tree Rooted to the Spot and a Snake Moves Around Me,in a CircleGarbage - Let All That We Imagine Be The Light
Vinny Peculiar - Things Too Long Left Unsaid
Little Simz - Lotus
John McKay - Sixes and #Sevens
Suzanne Vega - Flying With Angels
HAIM - I Quit
Morcheeba - Escape The Chaos
Vultures - Liz Kershaw Session 16.06.88
Billy Nomates - Metalhorse
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart