Nostalgia is the new modern, especially in music. Take a look at any band nowadays (ahem, Black Veil Brides) and you’ll see that they bring together a wide range of musical – not to mention commercial – influences to their work and style and wear them on their sleeves, heads, and any other body part that they can be displayed on. How well these elements hang together has a pretty major effect on how a band is received; some turn out great and merge old and new influences to make something unique. Others turn out…well, Black Veil Brides.
Georgia hard rockers bUGbRAIN are a band whose influences hit across the full gamut of alt, indie and melodic rock; there are hints of everything from Pearl Jam to Fleetwood Mac throughout the tracks on Flashback Moon, their first album, and these elements are mashed up and blended together to make for some unique combinations.
The title track is the most straight rocking tune on the album, a big quasi-grunge song that resembles Stone Temple Pilots with its big riff, bass-heavy groove and nice little syncopated chorus tying things together. A clever arrangement interspersed with false finishes gives it a pounding feel that makes it very enjoyable. Breakupbox mixes that Fleetwood Mac-ish feel with a country twang that belies the band’s Southern roots, It’s Danger has a nice 60s lounge thing going on, and Helping Hands melds some 50s rockabilly stylings with a fun fuzz-guitar driven chorus. No two tracks on this album sound the same, which is more than welcome nowadays.
However, for all their stylistic gymnastics, the things bUGbRAIN do just don’t quite hang together the way you would hope. There’s a real sense of the band struggling with just what kind of sound they want to have, and the indecision comes across in the lyrics, which are pleasingly obscure and fairly catchy, but fall just the wrong side of shallow, leaving songs a little light when you feel they ought to have more punch. Lead singer Brain’s delivery doesn’t really suit the scattershot style, either. His vocals are competent and well-sung – not whined or growled, another welcome break from the norm – but he lacks the range to bring the differing influences together into any kind of cohesive whole, sounding out of place and, occasionally, bland on some tracks.
Likewise, the entire band are clearly good musicians, but they don’t quite produce the spark needed to carry off the difficult combination of sounds they go for. Perhaps it’s the fault of the loudness war, but the drums in particular on the album seem to be missing some of the flair required to drive Flashback Moon to the next level, keeping time but not really enhancing the rhythm section of the songs throughout. Things aren’t helped by a one-dimensional production that lacks intensity in places where it’s sorely needed.
That said, these problems are well-managed for the most part. Some nicely employed vocal FX work helps the singing from becoming boring, the songs are short and to the point, not outstaying their welcome, and Brain and guitar partner Bugsy conjure up some excellent solos and breaks, usually where they’re not expected to be, which hints at the potential bUGbRAIN have to be a much tighter, more memorable band.
There’s a lot to like about Flashback Moon; it’s fun, imaginative and ambitious when it works, and it stands out among a lot of the modern rock music available today as more than just the usual canny marketing tool. It’s just a shame that the album is missing some key elements needed to deliver on that ambition and imagination. A little more focus and an improved production, and bUGbRAIN’s next outing could be very good indeed.
