Mackintosh Braun: Where We Are
RIYL: Dissociatives, Air, E.L.O.
It’s good to see that there is someone at the major league level who remembers the importance of having a label with a personality, and that someone is Chop Shop Records’ Alexandra Patsavas. If Patsavas has your back, odds are you are a contemporary pop act with an offbeat approach and throwback sensibilities, i.e. you write songs like they were written before Rob Thomas fucked everything up, and this describes Patsavas’ latest signing, Mackintosh Braun, to a ‘T.’ The Portland duo’s debut album Where We Are is blissful synth pop song after blissful synth pop song, filled with breathy, manipulated vocals and washes of sound that envelop the listener like a wave from the oceans of Xanadu. The band could definitely use a second operating speed, but when they’re on, like the fab opening track “Could It Be” and the ringing “Line in the Sand,” it’s damn near irresistible. Most of the album, though, falls into the pleasant-but-slight category, and the robotic vocals leave the proceedings a little cold, but you can tell from the chord sequences that Mackintosh Braun have the right idea. With any luck, they’ll come up with more of those right ideas next time around. (Chop Shop/Atlantic 2010)
Download Mackintosh Braun’s “Could It Be” here
Mackintosh Braun MySpace page
Click to buy Where We Are from Amazon
WRONG!!..
Mackintosh Braun are amazing. listen for yourself.
Thank you, Jeff, for bringing some intolerance to our blog. We’ll make sure all future opinions are exactly in line with yours.
so sad that the first album was quite a bit better. but yeah, i would have bought Where We Are even if i hadn’t already got the first one. i really hope they pull it out for the next one.
That’s funny Dave, cause i like Where We Are a hell of a lot more than The Sound. Just my opinion though.