The Brights prove one for the slacker radar with ‘Drinks and Dreams’
As the New Year approaches, drinks and dreams are naturally abound. Sadly, they don’t often go hand in hand, but thankfully, the drinks cushion the dashing of the dreams that they dealt out in the first place, so there’s nice poetry to it all anyway. The same can be said for the lilting resignation of The Brights and their latest effort, ‘Drinks and Dreams’, a song not so much sang as it is sighed.
The five-piece from Sydney, Australia, are blessed with the increasingly rare gift of melody, sweetly chirping in a manner akin to a Mt Misery of the southern hemisphere. This note-skimming style is melded into a tone somehow both serenely peaceful and sorely melancholy, like a view from the train window on a commute you’d rather not take.
With the brooding passivity of ‘Drinks and Dreams’, the band croon the wise old line, “Everybody has ways to spend their time.” There is something affirming about that. It makes a dip into the ‘whiskey sea’ that they soon follow it up with seem less like squandering and more of a natural expenditure of ticking seconds. The reason the track evades being crushing is thanks to the band’s aversion to dissonance and the soft, floating nature of the instrumental touches.
This careful and considered approach to songwriting has been upheld on two EPs and an LP to date, all of which have been crafted in a DIY capacity and humbly retain a slacker aura. This imbues their work with a sense of sincere creativity. You can picture them happily convening in some beat-up shack in Gadigal to chew the fat and cut some tunes as an upswell of escapism takes hold of the room, in the same way that you could picture The Smiths dashing through the Manchester rain to practice in a social club when listening to their music… the only hope is that The Brights’ frontman doesn’t turn out to be a maudlin bigot 20 years down the line.
Thankfully, that fate seems implausible because lyrically, there is a wry sense of humour and self-awareness. This runs from top to bottom with The Brights; beyond ‘Drinks and Dreams’, the outfit seem to joyously acknowledge that they have a lane, and it may not land them a headline slot at Glastonbury or grab facile ‘Next Big Thing’ headlines, but they’re pleased to be of service when it comes to easing hangovers or lubricating the mechanical gears of the daily grind.
The ease with which they embrace life on ‘Drinks and Dreams’, in particular, proves infectious and as effective at wavering worries as a White Russian in the back of a chauffeured vehicle (see The Big Lebowski for context). Eviscerating the weight of darkness in life is as easy as turning on the lights when it comes to your new favourite slackers, The Brights.
You can listen to their debut LP, Oyster Rock! below.
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