The Blood Brothers – Crimes

I’ve never despised a band as much as I had despised The Blood Brothers. I first heard this album about a month ago at my friend’s house and instantly dismissed it as the worst music I had ever heard. I guess I never really disliked the music at all, I just couldn’t stand the vocals. I figured a band with two main vocalists should have at least one who can sing well, but not The Blood Brothers. The second time I heard them I wasn’t impressed yet, still didn’t like it. But every time after that it started to grow on me, until the point where I am today where I absolutely love this album and find the vocals to be quite important to their sound and quite appealing to me now. Even the fact that I didn’t like them to begin with, that seems to add to the appeal.

It’s quite hard to explain, but I know I’m not the only person to experience this. I know of a few other people who had the same relationship with this album; their hate slowly turning to obsession. This is mostly a noise band with prog rock qualities and somehow a pop sensibility about them. As I mentioned before they have two main vocalists, one almost speaking in a low and vibrating monotone voice, the other with a high pitched almost feminine voice. I don’t think that either would be able to front this or any other band alone, but together they have some sort of chemistry and feed off of each other’s flaws. Strangely, even though neither one has any strong singing skill, once you actually listen to them you can tell they’re not bad singers either. Simply put, their flaws are their perfection.

Instrumentally you’ll hear the normal drums, bass and guitar accompanied by organs and even shakers at some points. The organ introduction to Peacock Skeleton With Crooked Fingers gets stuck in my head everytime I hear it. The vocals are used as an instrument, flowing with the music and at most points leading the songs. Although they are a noise band at heart they really do have pop qualities, as all their songs have some sort of catchiness to them. Whether it’s the flow and dynamic of the music or the repetition and rhythm of the vocals, something will grab you in each track off of this album.

My advice would be to truly give this band a chance. Maybe you will love it at first listen, maybe it will take a few tries but I am convinced that eventually you will find something appealing about this band, even if you don’t fall in love with them. When I starting to feel the urge to listen to them more and more I felt like I was giving in to something, but I found out this wasn’t a bad thing at all. I gave in, I gave them a chance and now I would say this is one of my favourite albums on this year. So go, right now, give it a try. Maybe it’ll have the same affect on you.