Mexico City - Brown Bird (Album)
» Mexico City tour dates - April 28, 2009
The disc starts off with the romping bassy track Raised an Empire, oozing with a garage rock and blues sound. The lyrics are repetitive, but not for lack of imagination, instead Mexico City makes the track a perfect sing-a-long for boozing rock lovers. Even in the first track you can hear comparisons with contemporaries The Black Keys and The Drones. Baby You've Changed, the second track is slightly disappointing for me, it follows the same garage rock and blues formula as the first track but fails to grab the listener in the same way.
They mix it up on the third track, delving into the realms of a 60s/70s rock ballad. I can picture Joe Cocker singing this track to a swaying hippie audience, urging them to move to a country shack to spend time with their woman. But why oh why is this track called R U Spiritual - are Mexico City trying to appeal to a younger texting audience, are they lazy, or just can't spell? I'm hoping it's just a private joke amongst the band members. This is a great track, except for the title.
This album reeks of beer soaked carpet and smoky hazy air in dungeon dive bars. It's the perfect accompaniment to the scene of a movie where our fallible and rough looking anti-hero engages in a cinematic slow-mo bar fight in an attempt to defend his woman - fists are flying, bar stools are flying, and its kind of beautiful if we ignore the inherent violence of such an act. This is where Ghetto comes into play - it's a mix of the first few tracks, not quite a ballad, not quite an epic rock track. It has a really great melancholic vibe, it's the last scene in our film where our cowboy (rough looking anti-hero) grabs his hat and his distressed leather jacket as he abandons his lover at the altar. She's a mess of make-up and white lace, crying and begging him not to leave, but he has to go because he's destined to wander, he's a free spirit that can't be pegged down to a time or place.
By the time we've hit Sometimes I Wonder I'm occasionally noticing a vocal quality that's verging on a Kings of Leon whiny-ness, which scares me a little - but just block it out, forget I ever said it, plenty of other people have pioneered the sound, it's just a shame I'm crippled by the ubiquitousness of popular music. So this is the track that plays as our cowboy walks off into the horizon, and there's some great lyrics here "Sometimes I wonder if I've still got the hunger, this tough love's getting tougher and I ain't getting any younger" - AHA! so our cowboy is suffering from a bit of a mid life crisis!? No wonder he's left his jilted bride by the altar. But we begin to understand the complexities of our cowboy, we start to even sympathise with him - he hasn't been dealt the best hand in life, and he's been broken and crossed so many times that he doesn't know who to trust anymore.
Trick of the Light should have come in earlier in our film - it's the part where we fall in love with our charismatic cowboy. He's funny and quite good looking, and he doesn't give a damn. This is a really fun track, and the feeling continues into the next track Damn Shame as well - short and sweet.
The last tracks of the album continue along the same winding road, the tracks are fun, and grimy, and radio friendly. 'Apparition' is one of the standout tracks of the second half of this disc for me. At times the tracks feel a little formulaic, not really treading any new ground. That said, this is a solid and accomplished release from one of Brisbane's best kept secrets. Perfect Sunday afternoon barbecue fare - with some up beat tracks to remind us of the crazy moments of Friday and Saturday night, and then some mellowed out tunes to calm us back down again.
