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Golden Rule [Release date 01.07.22]
The Anglo-Irish singer songwriter/guitarist Mike Brookfield is back with the latest version of his own ever changing musical vision.
The aptly titled ‘Built To last’ is a song driven album with meaningful lyrics and the musical chops to back them up.
Originally rooted in rock and roll, Mike paid his dues in the West-End orchestra pits, and honed his own style while exploring rock-blues, before broadening his scope with funky edges.
His last album ‘Hey Kiddo!’ proved to be a left field diversion as he fully embraced instrumental surf music.
If felt like something he needed to get out his system, especially as ‘Built To Last’ gives him an over arching concept that suggests durability. The result is an album that pushes his music into Americana, and as on ‘Snatched It From My Hand’, country music, complete with pedal steel.
The key to this album is balance. Nothing here is forced, from his choice of material to his arrangements. He takes us on an exploratory journey on which some tracks sound as if he’s dipping his toes in the water before he jumps right in.
Tracks such as the Dobro-led, poignant story telling narrative of ‘A Life Lived For Others’ illustrates his lyrical ability, especially on the closing hook: “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.’
This is an album glued together by an undeniable flow on which each track supports a coherent whole. So while ‘Speedway’ is all whispered lines, polished country harmonies and guitar splutters that rack up an inner tension, before finally being resolved by a weepy solo, the perfunctory finish leaves a void.
He cleverly fills that gap with the truly outstanding ‘Workin’ On You Baby’. The swampy track reveals his song craft full blown.
Built on subtle percussion, a tremulous guitar line, fleeting Dobro and restrained and harmony vocals, it percolates like a luxury coffee.
The narrator’s sense of urgency is neatly amplified by the rhythm track which has an uplifting feel.
Each brush stroke is part of a bigger picture, while Brookfield’s phrasing and quasi-duet with spouse Grainne Brookfield perfectly locks in with his impressive story telling:
“You say we tried this before, can’t you see that it won’t last, but the light’s going down, it’s getting too dark to tread this path. You know I broke the rules to get this thing back on track. My fingers are bloody and my clothes are worn and I’ve been working on you baby since the day I was born.”
One notable musical strand in the album is the country-rock feel, as on the opening ‘Delirium Town’, which features some hot picking and a snappy chorus that could almost be a late 70’s Graham Parker.
Ditto the very catchy ‘East Village Vinyl Queen’ which benefits from a Stones’ ‘Exile On Main St.’ style guitar sound. It straddles country rock and Americana while cleverly referencing icons such as Elvis, Steve Earl, and John Prine etc.
He cleverly works the 45rpm metaphors on a fine effort, but it too much like the lightweight rock that punk blew away.
‘Built To Last’ is forged by the several significant influences, most obviously the Bruce Springsteen style bluster on the poignant ‘Dunkirk Spirit’, complete with a Boss style staggered ending.
It also manages to incorporate dark WW2 imagery with jangling guitars before delivering the goods lyrically: “My grandfather he never told me the story, about fighting on the beach singing land of hope and glory, tell me where that Dunkirk Spirit now?”
And he contrasts the above with the caustic line: “When I look around at my home town with bordered up shops and needles on the ground.”
Not everything clicks immediately, with ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ curiously sounding as if we’ve suddenly been dropped into the track, rather than benefiting from a coherent intro. The lead vocal is also initially mixed too far back, but persistence pays off when he hits base on the repeated chorus.
At his best, Brookfield shapes his song with lyrical insight and musical excellence, while his near misses don’t miss by much, but stand in the shadow of stellar songs elsewhere.
The closing titular refrain is delivered with acoustic accompaniment and gently voiced percussion. And if the over familiar title of ‘Nothin’ To Sing But The Blues’ might initially suggest he’s running out of ideas, his adventurous stylistic breadth forges flinty dynamics, while the crafted feel of the album as a whole, counterweights such fleeting moments.
Like an interesting old friend, Mike Brookfield’s music combines reliability with inspiration and clearly ‘Built To Last’ is built from the ground up. ****
Review by Pete Feenstra
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
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UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 2 April 2024.
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14:00-16:00 KATARINA PEJAK – Pearls On A String (Ruf Records)
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