The Bros Landreth: Let It Lie

Artist: The Bros Landreth
Title: Let It Lie
Format Reviewed: MP3
Format Released: 10th July 2015
Reviewed By: Ben Chapman

This debut album from The Bros Landreth, Let It Lie, being an overseas re-release, is not without slight irony in its title. This is the Canadian quartet's attempt to break the European market in the wake of its recent win at the Junos', of The Roots & Traditional Album The Year.

Having heard it, the theory that brother's vocals will make more effective harmonies in music, surely proven earlier by the Beegees, remains evident in this album from Joey and David Landreth's sweetly honed vocal chords. Indeed it's in album opener Our Love where the vocal harmonies softly redeem what's otherwise a fairly uninteresting, slow and steadily paced, if perhaps tone-setting track. Despite the combination of natural and time-developed skill, this album opener sounds out as easy listening blues rock, with some diluted soul elements gradually building interest until ending the tune on some nicely authentic organ holding the outro. It's well developed, though maybe a bit cheesy.

Firecracker plays out a dreary love song, lacking energy, too smoothly sung and crisply produced, resulting in an overly poppy feel being given to their otherwise notable blend of rock, soul, blues, and sentimental country. There are however some better moments where the songwriting evades its earlier problems. In title track Let It Lie, the descending vocal meets the guitar's flourish early on in the track strongly. A sensitive tune softly layering the ears with its deft guitar work, the rock elements combined with the country ballad make for a more developed sound that some may find familiar with of Led Zeppelin's feel in That's the Way. Sentimentality is hammered in by the soul influences summoning up the backing vocals as they nail the refrain.

I Am The Fool perks the ears with a nice blues stomp that I'd like to hear Son of Dave cover, sadly broken by a couple of predictable turns to the melody, before some sort of banjo holds it together, distracting us back into the groove of the main riff. Things begin to get a busier edge here, competent guitar solos give plenty of musical depth, but it's the main vocal refrain here that cheapens the rest of the tone, a pop-filter through the otherwise cracking blues that sounds a bit out of place. 

Made Up Mind adds a bit of lounge funk with the patter of keys and moody guitar licks. I feel more like we have blues from the guitar, soul from the organ, and almost embarrassing pop sensibilities to the vocals rather than a cohesive result from the band's mixture of influences. 

Luckily it seems the second half of this album is stronger than the first. First realising this during Tappin' On the Glass' smooth Sunday style, or Greenhouse, where sparse piano chords lead as things take a bleaker turn before an impressive fiddle peeps round the end of the softly sung bars. Actually, by the end of the song and a few further listens, this one is a genuine grower; this is not least due to the interesting change of chord around 2:52, or the welcome appearance of horns for a beautiful but unluckily short middle eight. The brothers croon layer on layer of whoahing harmonies that win the listener round. The middle of that song is probably the best part of the album, and with its brilliance highlights some of the other inconsistencies that made this album hard to get into.

Runaway Train's dirty blues intro shows off the brothers' natural-sounding knowledge of the guitar. Perfectly timed note-bends, steady thud of bass, and coolly delivered vocal offerings. Nothing loses the momentum a bit, sounds like a cowboy saying goodbye to the moon. A decent enough but not ground-breaking soul-style lament with lullaby vocals, again it's the slide guitar's capability that's the strongest part of the song.

In Going to The Country, finally, a catchier and more abrasive rock feel is given to this one. Even if it does rely firmly on the classic blues format it's well produced and effectively built up into the swaggering blues beast I wish the band could have introduced us to earlier in the album. A partying blues send off as the albums winds down (if even more possible) in its last few tracks. At times the easy listening feel should be praised while at others it will test the listener's patience. Though the album has won awards, and has an informed reach across several genres, and undoubtedly decent musicianship, there's an overly polished feel squeaking with too many dodgy moments for me to recommend it.