Syd Matters // Brotherocean

I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to make of Brotherocean having read the PR sheet that came with it and discovering that Syd Matters (originally the stage name of singer Jonathan Morali but now that of the band) created the name from a combination of Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett and Roger Walters, and that the record was, apparently “the story of what lies behind the great yet fragile enterprise we have come to know as ‘Life’. Talk about self-indulgent, pretentious nonsense… But actually I was very pleasantly surprised and this record is, in fact, a rather beautiful, harmony rich and extremely well written album, containing elements of folk and seventies prog but both in a good way; it’s the sort of record that those genres sometimes promise but never seem to deliver as they get too wrapped up in themselves. This is a much more humble affair and as such is better for it. Think Fleet Foxes and you’ll be in the right ball park, but this Parisian quintet are no clones and deserve to be listened to on their own terms. Overall, this is a great record and, despite my initial reactions, I highly recommend it. But they do need to get someone new to write their press releases…