Album Review: Brilliant Colors – Introducing

Brilliant Colors - Introducing (2009)

Ten tracks. Less than 23 minutes. Three women. Oh, it’s that kind of album. Actually, not so much. This band got tired of waiting for Heavenly/Marine Research/Talulah Gosh to get back together (fundamentally impossible, I know — the new Tender Trap will be out soon, so hang in there) and decided to make their own music. Then, they’d get about two minutes into a song and realize, “Wow, this is harder than we thought. On to the next track!”

This is the kind of band I could listen to all day, every day. They’re definitely brilliant in the British sense, and one can hope that they’re brilliant in the American sense as well. Can’t you picture them hanging out at Cal, trying to find the next Jaycee Dugard?

“I Searched” gets the album off to a good start, even if it’s only for 1:44. The attention span reminds me of All Girl Summer Fun Band, whose songs are also inexplicably short for the genre. I guess that’s what the kids want. In the ’60s, my mom said that radio stations would boast the ability to play 30 songs in an hour. It was the style at the time.

“Mythic” is a microcosm of the frenetic pseudo-noise that personified bands of this ilk in the late ’80s and ’90s. Singer Jess Scott is at her best here and on “Yell in the Air,” in which she somewhat channels the Breeders. Sometimes you can trick a Morrissey fan into liking this stuff because of the guitar. Then they notice the music is happy, and well, it was fun while it lasted.

Amelia Fletcher would really be proud of these gals. On “Motherland,” you’ll do a double take because you’ll think it’s Ms. Fletcher herself on these tracks, but no. It’s strange, really. When I saw Waterdog at the Catalyst, we teased them for sounding like Green Day. But when Brilliant Colors come along and do it to it, it’s nothing but adoration for exemplifying the founders of the twee movement.

If you’re into jangly guitars and just enough harmony to get by, Brilliant Colors is the band for you.