The Brunettes- The Red Rollerskates EP

Publish Date: October 19, 2009 - 11:29am

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A showcase for the lead-off track from the band's forthcoming Paper Dolls LP, The Red Rollerskates EP signals a change in musical direction for twee Kiwis The Brunettes. Previously specializing in tiny little pop songs that aimed to be bedroom approximations of Brian Wilson and Phil Spector's finest works, "Red Rollerskates" glides along on plinking synth pianos and insistent Casio hi-hats. The slick, syncopated '80s pop sound is one that fits the band's sticky melodies like a good pair of quads, but core members Jonathan Bree and Heather Mansfield haven't completely given up on their '60s fetish — Bree sounds more like Lou Reed than ever on the record's five tracks, and that's not just because the lyric "rope around me/like a collar" sounds like something from "Venus In Furs."

The rest of the record is a bit of a mixed bag — a digitized update of the group's "Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks," an un-digitized take on "Red Rollerskates", a cover of The Cure's "Lovesong," and the previously unreleased piano-bashing rave-up "Mary-Kate And Ashley." While it's interesting to hear how the Brunettes of two years ago would have done "Red Rollerskates" (kind of like if Naked Eyes had followed its synthpop cover of "(There's) Always Something There To Remind Me" with a version full of Burt Bacharach horns and Latin-flavored marimbas), "Red Rollerskates '66" sounds like a band second-guessing itself. How Paper Dolls turned out will determine whether or not that second-guessing is warranted, but for the time being, it looks like smooth skating along The Brunettes' new-found path.

Recommended Tracks- "Red Rollerskates," "Lovesong"

-Erik Adams

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