Life is a time machine and everybody has their finger on the retro button. Man, that’s deep philosophy after a drink until you don’t die weekend but, truth be told, you need a drink if you have been tied to the bed and made to listen to Britpop. Only it wasn’t real Britpop. It was Glasgow band Brontosaurus – led by Joseph Greatorex and featuring a collection of Glasgow stalwarts such as Dave Gillies - and their new album “These People”.
Actually, the getting tied to the bed bit was entirely coincidental and it wasn’t really a hardship to listen to this album. After all, any band who can write a song with the line “I write songs no one hears for a band that no one likes” has the finger on the pulse of lost dreams and, even if sugar has replaced the sarcasm inherent to the original Britpoppers, it is difficult to find anything to dislike here especially if you have a hankering for a bit of melody and proper musicianship to go with your furry gloved irony.
You perhaps wouldn’t think so but the, almost twee, references to the real world of Arnold Clark, Homebase, bin men and the dying dreams of a sound engineer provides more than enough in the way of lyrical refreshments to keep your ears aligned with the Brontosaurus intent. Life, it would seem, is actually triviality combined and Brontosaurus have all the pop culture references to prove just that.
So, does that make Joseph Greatorex the Cocker of the North? He’s a softer touch than the original yet he clearly does have eyes that can see and hands that can write affectionate words about the world around him. Now that I think about it, “These People” would actually make a good musical.
Now, where did I put the keys to those handcuffs…
Best song? The delicious irony overload of “Blogger”.
The verdict? Not as retro as you might think.
Available from Bandcamp.