Audio By Carbonatix
Keep Westword Free
We’re aiming to raise $20,000 by April 26. Your support ensures Westword can continue watching out for you and our community. No paywall. Always accessible. Daily online and weekly in print.
Just as his former band (Band of Horses) en-dured countless comparisons to other groups, Mat Brooke’s Grand Archives will undoubtedly be likened to other indie-pop luminaries.
On songs such as “Index Moon,” for instance, Brooke’s voice resembles that of the New Pornographers’ A.C. Newman, while “Torn Blue Foam Couch” evokes a folksier Raveonettes with intertwined male and female vocals. Most songs here fill out the arrangements with three and four vocalists, somewhat making up for Brooke’s less-than-distinctive lead vocals, but “The Crime Window” may take it a step too far: The players conjure the Polyphonic Spree covering Andrew W.K. as the whole band shouts along in unison.
Fittingly, Grand Archives sounds best when it sticks to the stripped-down elegance of Brooke’s work in Seattle mope folkers Carissa’s Wierd — as on “George Kaminski,” which combines a lilting, breathy vocal melody with tasteful slide work to lovely effect.
