Brakes - Why Tell The Truth (When It's Easier To Lie) [Single]

Fat Cat Records

November 20, 2009, 03:01 PM

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by deadletteroffice [More from this Author]

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Brakes are a band known for their loud, ramshackle live shows (their superb live album 'Live is Dodelijk' pays testament to this) but here they show that they are just as adept at the kind of melodic pop-rock Pixies used to be able to churn out in their sleep. 'Why Tell The Truth' is a brisk, hook laden ditty with a striking structure which sees an atmospheric, acoustically tinged verse off-set by a chorus so comparatively loud it almost sounds violent.

The song may be simple at heart (to my ears I'm hearing the whole song as G/D/A with a cheeky E thrown in at the chorus) but the band play off each other wonderfully and there's just enough studio buffery in place to maintain Brakes lo-fi aesthetic whilst retaining some modern clarity. Eamon Hamilton's lyrics too are a thing of sparse beauty, touching on alcoholism and wasted days in a tone and wit not seen since Paul Westerbergs drunken hey-day ("I'm gonna tell you why it is that I drink my days away, It's cause the beer helps the cigarettes go down") and manage to convey a sense of longing without sounding corny or force-fed (no mean feat).

B-Side 'Worry About It Later' is almost as strong, a lovelorn acoustic number that wouldn't sound out of place on a Shins album. It leaves one with the lasting impression that this band can truly do no wrong.

I can name only a handful of modern bands that manage to pull off music this simple without making it sound dumb and Brakes sit comfortably at the top of that list!