Smart-alec middle-aged indie guys go hard rock? Well, it’s quite a headline, and not entirely untrue: ‘Wave’ is an 8-minute beast of a track that develops into a thunking great riff and packs a monster guitar solo. But it’s just another example of the long-running band’s eclecticism and refusal to subscribe to any one genre.
‘We’re Ready!’ finds them stretching out in all directions and durations, with four of the album’s six tracks stretching out beyond the six-minute mark – contrasted by ‘From the Doorway’ which clocks in at under a minute and a half, and packs in a slinky beat, some harmonica and introduced some Wire-y leftfield oddness to proceedings. There are some great pop-tinged commercial rock moments here, but equally, there are elements of psych, punk and alt-rock to be found throughout the album.
‘She’s Free’ switches between spacey white dub verses and then goes all Jefferson Airplane for the choruses. If it sounds crazy, what’s even crazier is that it works. ‘We’re Ready!’ is nothing if not eclectic.
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The Brainiac 5 are anomalous in that they’ve produced considerably more output post-reformation than in their first phase, and ‘We’re Ready!’ is the work of a band riding the crest of a creative wave and with plenty more to come.
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