Album Reviews

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from a band called Dogbreth, but it wasn’t what I ended up listening to. “Second Home” is filled with the kind of songs that ooze melody and awesome guitar leads and even though the bummer lyrics talk of anxiety and broken hearts, these songs are guaranteed to plaster a big smile all over your face.

Think Cheap Girls meets Joyce Manor meets Sweet Talk. There’s jangly, Pavement-like guitars one second and Thin Lizzy-inspired solos the next. And the band doesn’t just like to switch things up when it comes to the guitars. Whether it’s Tristan Jemsek passing the mic on to Erin Caldwell or introducing a saxophone in “Steeping”, there’s always a surprise waiting to happen. That might not make it sound like the most cohesive album out there, but everything on here has this nice, natural flow to it that is simply irresistible.

On “Cups And Wrappers”, the band states that ‘rock ‘n roll won’t make it all okay’. I’m too cynical to think otherwise, but Dogbreth sure as hell brightened up my day considerably.