Artist: B Is Bridgie
Title: 500 Words EP
Label: Independent
Release Date: October 2013
Reviewer: Jessica Cooper
Track Listing:
- Call it a Day
- Spoons and Forks
- Breather
- The Other Night
- Intersections
“Here’s your complimentary broken heart that you tried to fix the other night. Stop ignoring all the helping hands that try to hold you up. Soon the sun will rise and give a chance to dance another day.”
I had to run this about fifteen times to get a feel for what B Is Bridgie is, and I think it’s safe to say that their sound has accomplished itself in the realm of classic, comfortable garage band technicality. It’s like the early days of Relient K, mixed with the nostalgia of young adulthood, with driving bass lines, female vocals that have a kind of drifting, dream-like quality, and that anthemic tone that hits hard enough to leave the tiniest of dents in your phonic memory.
Relying on just the right amount of groove, B Is Bridgie weaves spacey groupings in and out of various bass chord progressions and vibrant, chiming guitars. Each song has its own distinctive energy, they’re driven really well by the rhythm section, and lyrics that influence you to reflect upon the familiarity of what you listened to growing up. For me, “The Other Night” (which I quoted at the beginning) really pushes me back into music of the 90’s, when bands like Collective Soul and Dinosaur Jr. thrived in that weird, semi-grungy, comfort zone of pop rock. I kept coming back to this one each time I gave it a spin.
Overall: This debut is already solid, in my opinion, and I think it could definitely be a gateway to a full project. I’d like to see more from B Is Bridgie in the future, and I’m glad more bands like this have been coming up on the scene recently. If you didn’t check out the full stream of this EP in September, I encourage you to do so.
RIYL: Stairwell, My Compatriots, Rocking Horse Winner.