I discovered Leesburg, Virginia’s My Kid
Brother in a slightly odd way: I was reading a discussion thread about
exciting emerging metal bands, hoping to truffle out some new noise. Someone
had listed My Kid Brother as a metal band to watch, in a post that was
followed by lots of angry replies about how they are not at all metal. Which is
true, they’re an indie band. The video to the wonderful ‘Spilt Salt’ parodies
metal videos, though – and does so really well – so I’m assuming the post
author saw that and got confused. I’m glad they did (sorry loads of people
yelled at you, dude), because My Kid Brother are notably better than any
of the actual metal bands that were mentioned on the thread. Whether it be
during the harmonisation of mid-tempo opener ‘Never Break Your Heart’, the
bouncy indie-pop of the aforementioned ‘Split Salt’ (I adore that track), the
quasi-disco of the aptly titled ‘Disco Days’, or the piano driven rock of
‘Shoulders’, the unifying factor here is melody. These tracks are beautiful,
heartfelt and – most of all – memorable. I have hummed almost every song on the
record on repeat. The slight dip is the disappointing ‘Roots’, which is perfectly
ok but feels out of place with its Raconteurs-evoking scuzz.
Nonetheless, this record benefits from a consistently high standard of song-writing
and is well worthy of its 4th place finish. Not bad for a metal
album that isn’t a metal album.