The Brutalist Bricks (Matador)
03/09/10
by: Mike Mucus
It’s not that Ted Leo isn’t pissed off anymore, because on songs like “Woke Up Near Chelsea”, he sure is. What The Brutalist Bricks is more focused on talking about is, change. Ted and his revolving door of band mates have been writing songs in response to the political landscape created by the Bush administration since good ol’ “W’s” time in office started. Now that Mr. Leo’s muse is back on some ranch in Texas, in his underwear and a ten gallon cowboy hat, sipping Dr. Pepper out of a plastic kiddie cup with a lid on it, what else can we expect from a new Ted Leo/Rx record?
With the new Presidency, and a new social climate in America, the notion of “what’s next” for Ted Leo is exactly what makes The Brutalist Bricks such a great record for the spring. What is next for Ted Leo and his Pharmacists to write about now that the topics of conversation have shifted? That is exactly what Ted is getting at on this record. If you are anything like me, lots of records just attach themselves to seasons, places, memories, etc. They create a timestamp in your mind and you can instantly associate part of your life with a record or song. This record makes a hard case to be this spring’s record of choice. It is littered with indie pop gems and punk rock fire, but this time around the “pops” are poppier (“Bottled In Cork”, “Even Heroes Have To Die” and the “punks” are punkier (“Where Was My Brain?”, “Gimmie the Wire”).If it's springtime metaphors weren’t already so obvious, the record has a bright yellow record jacket featuring a solitary bumble bee on the cover; songs about swallows, there are even samples of crickets chirping at night (“Tuberculoids Arrive In Hop”). “Avitan Eyes” is a perfect, windows-open-wind-in- your-hair driving song, and lyrically on songs like “Even Heroes Have To Die”, using phrases such as “What do they know about the spring time, of me and you.”, hammers the point home; this is a record about change, about the spring, about looking at the world with renewed values, about giving you the feeling that anything is possible. Oh yeah, and its stuffed with more punk rock than ever before!
Key Tracks :
Bottled In Cork
Gimmie The Wire
Even Heroes Have To die
