Album Review: Brother Firetribe - Feel The Burn

Brother Firetribe is on that tier of bands who I like, and whose music I enjoy when it comes on, but whom I seldom think about without anything to jolt my memory. They make serviceable rock that slips in one ear and out the other, sort of like empty calories. Those are fine in the moment, but you aren't going to remember the taste once you've rinsed out your mouth. Maybe that sounds a bit too harsh, but the basic point is that bands like this don't have quite enough of an identity of their own to stand out from the crowd. I've listened to multiple albums of theirs, and I can't come up with anything to tell you that differentiates them from H.E.A.T., or any number of other bands playing slick and melodic rock.

This time around, the band blends their ultra 80s rock with some of the modern electronic pop that has been ruining all manner of bands for the last decade. I don't know when bands are going to realize that synthetic, percussive music isn't conducive to big, melodic hooks, but I hope it comes soon. That, and the obsession with the 80s, have made it tough for me to be excited by rock music for the last few years. The two make rock sound both old and dour, which isn't a good mix.

The worst offender is the single, "Night Drive", where we get a long buildup of fake sounding percussion, cheesy synths chiming in, and a chorus that is pure Hall & Oates. It's the sort of thing that would have been great in 1985, except that it's 2020. It doesn't sound vintage in the way that the organic rock bands recall the 70s, but rather an intentional attempt to copy a particular production style of the past. It's a pastiche, a gimmick, and it leaves the record feeling rather hollow because of it.

The band has written good songs before, and there are some good ones here. The chorus of "Bring On The Rain" is a fist-raiser, except for it not sounding too soft to hit the heights it otherwise could. This is supposed to be a rock album, but there's very little energy and grit to it. The sound is so polished it doesn't sound powerful enough to be the kind of arena anthems the band is clearly going for. Journey's "Separate Ways" this is not, that's for sure.

As before, this is music that is pleasant to listen to, but I know I'm not going to find myself drawn to come back and listen again. The hooks are good, but not great, and the music itself is hokey in a way I don't find particularly fun. I have no problem listening to this, and I do bob my head along at times, but it's not the kind of rock music I would usually choose to listen to. I've said many times I don't understand why people have an obsession with the 80s, and every time I come across a record like this that wants to go back to that time, I'm not getting an answer. I have no nostalgia for this sound, and I think you need it to get over how hackneyed it is.

Brother Firetibe is once again a good band squandering what could have been a better record by making choices I don't think position them as a current band of note. They are clearly trying to be a band of the past, and since most of those bands are still out there on the scene, that makes what Brother Firetribe is up to redundant and unnecessary. Sorry, guys.