The Brunettes
Structure & Cosmetics (Sub Pop)
By Catherine Disabato
Published: August 17th, 2007 | 2:28pm
New Zealand-based male-female pop duo the Brunettes soaked up the sound of the girl pop bands of the ’50s, but instead of acting as mimics, the duo modernized its tone and style.
The Brunettes’ earliest releases were lo-fi and a bit fuzzy, yet still managed to seem warm and polished. Structure & Cosmetics, their newest effort and first on an American label, ups their production, but all this shining up rubs away a bit of the quirkiness, and brings in some typical indie pop sounds. The duo sounds bigger than they ever have before, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Despite a slight homogenization of the Brunettes’ style, Structure & Cosmetics is difficult to write off. “Her Hairagami Set” opens with Heather Mansfield singing an evocative melody undampened by the heaviness in Jonathan Bree’s vocals. In “If You Were Alien,” they reprise one of their themes: high-fantasy love songs. The two croon, alternating lines, “If you were an alien girl / I’d call you my Martian man,” sandwiched between “sha-la-la-la’s.” The album’s best track is “Stereo (Mono Mono),” a light, simple guitar-driven track with Mansfield and Bree whispering to each other, “Where are you? / Over here,” under a chorus of monotone female voices singing, “Stereo, stereo, ster-ee-oh.”
Though the ’50s-pop mentality that informed the Brunettes’ early releases is somewhat diminished on Structure & Cosmetics, the album’s bubbly, catchy tracks are good enough to survive a shift in style.
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