Review: Brits And Pieces – Volume III

The third new artist showcase from Marc Rossiter’s Brits And Pieces initiative.

Labours of love can be thankless things.

To dedicate one’s heart and soul to a project, be it writing a book or re-organising the garden, takes time but the effort, and indeed the entire project, can often pass unheralded to all but the creator. It’s not why they do it, but some acknowledgement would be nice.

Therefore it was pleasing to see the first two Brits And Pieces compilations enter the UK Album Charts at 54 then 52 in late 2020/early 2021.

For the unaware, these CDs aspire to be the ‘Shine’ series for the 21st century, an initiative set up by one man (Marc Rossiter) and his Twitter account to promote new and unsigned music.

Why a labour of love? Because Rossiter ensures that all royalties go straight to the artists included which, in a music industry that’s been particularly starved of cash for the last two years, clearly signals that the venture is worthy of your time if nothing else.

Fortunately it’s not just the gesture that impresses. This new collection (Volume III, naturally) is stocked with a selection of tracks which illustrate the healthy status of British music.

Not that it is quintessentially British; Darkness In Your Eyes, which opens the album, is a swaggering, hip-swaying bar-brawler of a song which could be a Josh Homme offcut, yet The Heavy North hail from Liverpool.

Likewise, the joyously catchy Nod Your Head from Sam Lambeth & The Four Chords (admittedly, such a self-deprecating moniker could only hail from these shores) is a finger-snapping, toe-tapping little number which echoes the sunshine of Tom Petty’s material despite Lambeth hailing from Wolverhampton.

Similarly indebted to the United States (via Birmingham) is Spectre by Jay Tennant as he ominously warns, ‘I’m coming for you’, against moody tones.

Otherwise, the music is undeniably British. The heavy-but-angular That Letter (The Facades) evokes early Arctic Monkeys while Vicarage Road (The Lilacs) is all dreamy arpeggio and street-level romance in the vein of The Courteeners.

Apollo Junction build momentum expertly on Porcelain, the New Order synths creating atmospherics which complement the emotion, while the stinging My Life Is A Mess (The Flixx) is layered with sugar-sweet melody against fuzzy guitars, standing out because of their impressive resolution to sing in their own none-more-English accent.

The Juice describe themselves as scally rock but there’s a sweetness amid the staccato-delivery on Tell Me Tina, while The Superlatives are anything but.

Sonically like fellow Leeds act The Music, Sonder is big rock music – albeit less groovy, more slap-round-the-chops, much like Senses on We’re Not Wanted. Like The Stone Roses in Doc Martens.

Be Mine (The Katuns) is equally ambitious, as is Control Freak by Blackbirds; a fusion of Ocean Colour Scene and Kasabian, the winding tempo sustains the intrigue and is just the right side of ridiculous (namely, fun).

Grandiosity can also be found on the big drums and polished sound on Sweet Talker by The Rah’s and Maya Lakhani’s The Line, which seems determined to burrow into the listener’s consciousness regardless of consent.

Respite from the noise can be found through Kompassion who impress with their Lily Allen-esque wordplay on Bubblegum, while closing track Dublin Serenade is a fitting balm to end things; Amelia Coburn’s sparse, whimsical acoustic number could be lifted from a lost 1970’s soundtrack.

Jackson Lucitt’s Text Back Blues snaps and crackles like early Jake Bugg, although does veer perhaps a little too closely to the edge. Such is the nature of compilations, there are a couple of less essential songs that are musically competent but just too derivative. The ethos of the album is to look forward, but it seems that 1997 was a quantum leap too far for some. Regardless, it’s an impressive hit ratio as those songs will have their fans, as will every track featured.

Your favourite new band may be here or it may not, but it’s well worth the investment of time to find out.