Brighter once claimed our hearts then they went away... but the singer Keris Howard returned with a new band Harper Lee (with of course the lovely Hal as an interlude) to gave us three more albums plus of beautiful pop tunes before going away too. This is heart felt and so-often heart broken indie pop, post-Sarah C86 at its most distilled. Delicate, beautiful, embarrassed, despondent and bleak.
This is music for those who never quite got what they wanted in life, which is probably all of us. Its music for those who never got the love they truly wanted and had to make do with something else if anything. A song like "The thought of you and him" really brings this to the fore. The love is still there but its one way and that fact is killing you inside. But the magic of Brighter/Harper Lee is despite the bleakness and despair there is a beauty and a way to move on.
"This better life" starts off with an upbeat tune but the song is anything but, there is a hope in there somewhere but its at the end of a very long tunnel. At least it is there. "The forest alone" is another bleak track but its more a reflective acceptance than anything darker. This isn't music to slit your wrists to, its music to sigh sadly and have a cup of tea to. Its an album of pragmatic despair. Its life itself. This album represents us all. I loved every single nanosecond of it.
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