Album Review

Shit Browne – Every Single Penny Will Be Reinvested in the Party

• 27th Jun 2010

The Arndale Centre, The Northern Quarter and the Hacienda. All places associated with Manchester right? Even more so, the music that’s associated with Manchester is even more famous. The music has caused people to ‘learn from the Mondays, wank over the Roses and smoke the Carpets.’ This is certainly the case for Parisian band Shit Browne.

Opener ‘Artifice’ is very Primal Scream – ish in it’s sound. From the mellow basslines and the industrial ‘Kill All Hippies’ like synth lines, ‘Artifice’ sets a very dark start to the album. There’s a slight hint sombreness ot it. The band don’t need to light any fireworks (if you’ll excuse the metaphor) to get things started.

The more deeper you get into the album, the more clearer the indluences become. Take tracks such as ‘Sunflower’ or “Don’t Ask” for example. The melodic Stone Roses like guitar lines of ‘Sunflower’ set a nice down to earth pace to the album whilst the psychedelic percussion and ‘Step On’ like piano fills bring the bands sound closer to that of the Happy Mondays. Tracks such as ‘Sweetback’ or ‘Eternal Love’ on the other hand bring the sound closer to that of New Order. The swirling, almost modest electronic loops are pleasant to listen to. There’s all this talk of Manchester influences throughout but we can’t forget about other stylistic similarities that the band has to other bands. The bands sound reaches a certain style of indie pop at times that it sounds twee. In fact the vocal sound is very close to Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian fame.

Shit Browne are certainly the total opposite of the latter half of their name. Even though they are a distance away from Manchester, they manage to pull their influences quite well. The album is well varied mixing both more traditional types of indie music with it’s funky bass lines and psychedelic guitars to the more electronic types that switch between the darker aspects to the more upbeat and mellow sides.