Brilliant Colors: Sleepy, Not Dreamy
by Lauren Beck
Brilliant Colors
Again and Again
(Slumberland)
Three girls, this time from San—Francisco, sign to Slumberland Records to release a 10-track album that clocks in just over a half an hour. And that's about all you need to know to arrive at the proper conclusion: Brilliant Colors are another to work within the ever-popular C86-indebted, twee-pop style. It wasn't new when the Vivian Girls kickstarted the girl-group culture with their 2008 debut, but three years later, it's becoming increasingly difficult to defend those following suit for time-honored quaintness when so many records seem like carbon copies of carbon copies at this point. Again and Again is right.
The general consensus is that this strain of music leans towards punk, but the melodies here, while pleasant and available in bulk, never achieve real urgency, and while the string of singles that followed the band's 2009 debut benefited from fellow ‘Franciscan Ty Segall's garage-rock attack behind the boards, the girls now seem content with plod-along timing. And lines like "I know nothing quite takes the cake like your sweet taste" don't do much for any punk-rock credibility. Singer-guitarist Jess Scott seems more sleepy than feisty, unwilling to fight the boy-obsessed culture of femalehood, coating the already one-dimensional tracklist with a one-note glaze. But even if we allow that Brilliant Colors have committed to the "twee" tag (moving away from pop punk), the girls don't appear to carry the "heart on the sleeve" emotional weight typically associated with it. These songs are like a chain of paper dolls—waiting to be decorated and only fun to play with for a few minutes.
