Brights - A Trivial Pursuit

  by Dixie Ernill

published: 10 / 6 / 2011

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Review

For a long time jingle-jangle pop, reminiscent of that that littered the indie venues of the mid-80's, was very much out of favour, but in recent years there has been a resurgence of sorts. The likes of the Libertines and the Strokes brought the sound back to the mainstream, but up and down the country bands have been springing up with increasing regularity - The Heartbreaks in Manchester, the Heartstrings (Frankie and) in Sunderland, the Crookes in Sheffield and Brilliant Mind in Newcastle. To redress the North/South balance a little, the Brights have emerged from Essex with a fine debut album that keeps them just a sniffer dog behind the leading pack. Name dropping the Smiths in opening track (and debut single), 'Footsteps', quickly clears up any doubt that the Brights are a band that take their influences firmly from the indie bands of the 1980s. This, of course, is no bad thing. David Burgess's slightly nasal vocal style is similar to the Buffseeds, who briefly scratched the lower reaches of the charts a few years back, but musically they are as close to the Chesterfields as anyone from C86 era. The excellent recent single, 'A Cameo Can't Last Forever', and 'London Belongs to Me'are probably the highlights of an accomplished debut that could easily have come out on Subway a quarter of a century ago. Maybe the only way is Essex!

Track Listing:-

1 Footsteps
2 A Camero Can't Last Forever
3 Monday Lives Next Door
4 False Alarms
5 Barricade Of Love
6 Pride Step Aside
7 Hands Across The Ocean
8 London Belongs To Me
9 Memories Of You
10 Promises
11 Memories Of You (Reprise)