Brave Irene - S/T (12" vinyl, CD)

Brave Irene are a new Vancouver based five piece project boasting the talents of ex-Tiger Trap front-lady Rose Melberg. Now for me this is a good starting point but it wasn't immediately obvious when I first began listening to this s/t debut. My first thought when opener 'No Fun' kicked was 'these harmonies sound loads like Juliana Hatfield' who's guest appearance on 'My So-Called Life' (as a dead homeless guitar strumming wistful grunger type) had thoroughly amused me just a few nights back. I love Juliana Hatfield's voice, especially in harmony mode, so that coupled with excellent Downdime-esque (Leeds crash-pop wonders) instrumentation and it was a quick sale. Melberg's scuzzy strumming and angelic voice coupled with keyboard/vocalist Caitlin Gilroy's slightly psychedelic approach lift these uniform but excellent crafted indie pop gems skyward. Reminds me of the Lemonheads with a dose Stereolab and C86 tweester pop. Eight short but sweet ditties that'd drive the kids at Indietracks crazy wild. Highlights are opener 'No Fun' (which is a total repeater) and 'Good Idea'. Good stuff.