Album Reviews

- by Tom Dumarey

Following Lush’s final reunion show in Manchester in 2016, vocalist/guitarist Miki Berenyi wasn’t too excited about the idea of getting back out of the music game again. So instead she started Piroshka with Moose guitarist KJ “Moose” McKillop, Modern English bassist Mick Conroy and ex Elastica drummer Justin Welch.

Miki recalls “It was after that last Manchester show that Justin asked if I’d be up for something else. But I’d never made music outside of Lush, and I’ve never wanted to do anything solo. I need someone else to motivate me, and in this case, it was Justin. He sent drum tracks with guitar parts and odd words, so I wrote some vocals and lyrics, which became ‘This Must Be Bedlam’ and ‘Never Enough’. When Mick added bass, it sounded great. When Moose added guitar and keyboards – I’d never written like that before, it was such good fun.”

Fun and great. Two simple words, but they sum up ‘Brickbat’ nicely. The album comes with ten songs that sound like a band having a great time and doing whatever they feel like without allowing themselves to be tied down by outside expectations. Which is why ‘Village Of The Damned’ sounds all airy and breezy, while ‘Never Enough’ is danceable pop music. Elsewhere on the album, ‘What’s Next’ is upbeat pop done right while ‘Run For Your Life’ is punky enough to get your heartbeat racing.

Lyrically, it's not all fun and games though. 'Village Of The Damned' for example is about school shootings and our reaction to almost being unable to take our eyes off twenty-four-hour news and internet feeds and opening track 'This Must Be Bedlam' is about the big hot mess that is Brexit. Which is the kind of lyrical subject matter you'd expect from a band that named their album the word for a missile. ‘Blameless’ and ‘Heartbeats’ on the other hand don't quite make the cut, sounding nice enough but not really going anywhere worth mentioning. Overall though there is plenty to enjoy on ‘Brickbat’, an album by a band that refuses to be defined by a single scene.

Track listing:

1. This Must Be Bedlam
2. Village Of The Damned
3. Never Enough
4. Blameless
5. What's Next?
6. Hated By The Powers That Be
7. Run For Your Life
8. Heartbeats
9. Everlastingly Yours
10. She's Unreal