This month’s offering from the Rough Trade Club comes from the ludicrously titled band Brigitte Calls Me Baby (named after a brief penpal relationship with French actress Brigitte Bardot, apparently). At first, it sounds like the band rifled through their dad’s record collection for inspiration but barely got past The Smiths.
Lead singer and songwriter Wes Leavins has a full-on Morrissey croon, but there is also a whiff of Elvis, Brandon Flowers and Hamish Hawk in there - not a bad thing in my book. His voice is so distinctive that it initially dominates the songs, drawing all attention.
The band has magpied so hard that it almost sounds like a tribute album. Take the first three songs, for instance: the title track sounds like an unrealised Morrissey single, ‘Pink Palace’ is a full-on ode to Johnny Marr’s 80s jangle guitar Smiths songs, and ‘Eddie My Love’ sounds like Elvis belting out a record released by The La’s! Please give them a listen; tell me I’m wrong!
I can also hear The Killers (‘Palm Of Your Hand’), The Strokes (‘You Are Only Made Of Dreams’), and Coldplay (‘We Were Never Alive’); still, Leavins’ voice pulls everything back to Morrissey (it doesn’t help when they have songs titled ‘I Wanna Die In The Suburbs’; tell me that doesn’t sound like a Smiths/Morrissey track!!!)
Leavins’ singing on ‘You Are Only Made Of Dreams’ teeters on the edge of farce as he almost delivers a Vic Reeves ‘club singer’ vocal in the first verse before morphing into playful Morrissey, then powering through into full Elvis - I can’t make up my mind if it is genius or madness.
It took me three or four run-throughs to get my head around this album. Initially, it sounded as shallow as a puddle, a well-produced pop album cashing in on the love of all things retro, but the more I listened, the more depth I found. I’ve got it on repeat all day; I can’t get enough of it.
Fancy a copy? This Rough Trade Exclusive black and white split colour vinyl is available for £24 and comes with a live CD, too. It is available on clear vinyl from the band's Bandcamp page for the same price.
Tracks To Try: ‘The Future Is Our Way Out’, ‘Pink Palace’, ‘Eddie My Love’, ‘I Wanna Die In The Suburbs’, ‘Impressively Average’, ‘We Were Never Alive’
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