Album Review: Brightly - Beginnings & Endings

To put it as simply as possible; Brightly's debut is gorgeous. The Melbourne three-piece play a blend of electronica, indie pop and folk, and while that combination sounds like it could end up sounding kind of tacky (overly sugary power-pop bands like Owl City and Hellogoodbye tend to spring to mind), Brightly have avoided heaping on the cute and cringe worthy and have struck a lovely balance in their sound. The album was recorded over eighteen months in various locations (bedrooms, apartments, the backseat of a car and an airplane), and is as unique as the unconventional methods in which it was fashioned.

There's a lot of experimentation going on in Beginnings & Endings, but even with their constant toying with sounds and effects, the carefully orchestrated addition and subtraction of sounds prevents things from ever becoming too overwhelming. The album's opener, Preflight Nerves, is filled with subtle (and at one point in particular, not-so-subtle) glitches timed so well between the simple guitar riffs and the stronger moments of Charlie Gleeson's rich vocals.

Even in the more electronically-weighted tracks like Over & Over and Tokyo, there's an underlying natural tone that keeps the tracks from sounding too rigid. The peppy synth-lines in the onset of Tokyo are softened with just the right amount of reverb and are tidily removed or altered at intervals of the bright plucking of an electric guitar.

If there's anything that this debut effort from Brightly proves, it's that the outfit know a thing or two about making music. The entire album is brilliantly put together and not once does it feel contrived.