Brontosaurus
Cold Comes to Claim
(People of Paper)
It’s hard to catch a piece of Brontosaurus’ new LP to hold on to. They call themselves experimental pop, and I totally agree with them. This type of experimentation is the kind that sounds like “what if this song went like this, but then it sounded totally different, and throughout there aren’t any solid beats?” Band members Nicholas Kelley and Nicholas Papaleo are quite talented, but create music that comes off a little on the schizophrenic side. The tracks could almost be called epic, but they would need to be more cohesive. Instead, they’re more like jarring trips through a strange mind-space.
There are pieces of each track that I really dig, like right off the bat, “Beware,” has this amazing 30-second part with a jangly saloon type piano. This is preceded by the lyrics: “Listeners, please prepare your brains for bombardment - notes born of despair.” The music can be pretty despairing: each song is mostly minor tones. It would be hard to properly get ones’ toes a-tappin’ at a concert of theirs. Which is fine; this is definitely more a record for deep contemplation rather than something to groove to.
It’s clear that great care was put into Cold Comes to Claim. The Nicholases may be guilty of trying too hard to be different, but would that we all could be guilty of such a crime. The amount of instruments employed on the record is large, common these days, but they are all thrown together in interesting and unusual ways, such as two acoustic guitars, an electric guitar, violins and cymbals, all vying for attention, while Kelley and Papeleo’s voices are filtered through in the background. If you’re looking to feel slightly disturbed and inspired at the same time, this is the record for you.
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