Labels: Topshelf Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Ok. Had to psyche myself up for this one. Poured myself a glass of Evil Twin “Molotov Cocktail”. Lay down on the bean bag. Felt like it’d be easier to just not write this. Just listen to Duster instead, booze myself to sleep, drift off. You see, me and Braid go way back. Way way back. Not as way back as some of you, and well, they don’t know me but I was stalking them in 1998. That “98 show upstairs at the Garage. That “13 show downstairs at the Garage. They were both something. Quite the something. I never would have expected a reformed emo band to deliver on quite the scale they did last year, but that they did. I was sweating off the pounds. I put them back on again. I was punching the air, jumping around, I was hugging James Bunten, we were so thrilled. Braid were nailing it, I’d never seen anything like it. In 15 years.
And here is No Coast. I can’t think that this is the kind of album that many late 30 somethings want to be listening to. Maybe a few who got left behind, the few that really do only listen to those same late 90s records over and over again. I’ve got vastly more than my share. I listen to those plenty. But I also have a bunch of new records and those records aren’t basically pop punk albums. Which is what this is. To be brutal for a moment – Braid is like Less than Jake. Just playing pop punk to an audience of aging people who know all the lyrics and will hang on every word, and that’s fine, I’d go and see Braid tomorrow if they said they were playing in the UK, no question, but I don’t need a new LP that sounds like this. Hard truth. I had to face it.
It’s far from a bad record. I like Very Emergency as much as the next guy. The next guy is probably you. No Coast is basically in same vein as that album, but 15 years too late. It’s like Hey Mercedes happened and is still going. Nothing wrong with that either. I enjoy all the Hey Mercedes records. I can enjoy this record even. It has some belters on it. Lux is a masterpiece and probably the only song on here that could have accidentally been left off Frame and Canvas. I think I just hoped that a bunch of dudes a similar age to me might make a slightly more restrained album, a bit more contemplative, something conjured from years of experience, but then perhaps the experiences of the people in this band have led to them writing something far more upbeat and bouncy than I, personally, selfishly, would have desired.
I think the artwork does a great job of summing up the record. It’s got a great mid 90s trope – telegraph poles – but it’s such a mess. Slapdash. A great foundation let down by average implementation. That’s this LP. Entirely decent, but ultimately just that, decent. Sorry Braid. I really hope you don’t ever read this. I know you are doing exactly what you want, and I don’t begrudge that, but, a few grumpy bastards like me, we just want something else these days.