I was so excited to be able to review Broods’ debut album Evergreen, which was released on the 22nd of August. Broods are a brother sister duo from Nelson. Composed of Georgia Nott on lead vocals and Caleb Nott on production and backing vocals. The band is produced by New Zealand musician, producer and Silver Scroll and Grammy award winning songwriter Joel Little, who has co-written and produced most of New Zealand sensation Lorde’s work.
Evergreen is a wonderful example of electronic based music. The album encapsulates the ideas of longing, life, forgetfulness and homesickness. The lyrics are intimate and paint wonderful images that enable you to be taken on a powerful emotional and musical journey. For a pair aged in their early 20s it surprises me how mature their lyrics are, and shocks me that they are in the same age area as me! They have an advanced outlook and use these ideas to develop and enhance their songs.
Highlights from this album for me are LAF. An upbeat hand clapping tune that gets you moving. I may have utilized the power of the repeat button for this song, and may have been seen by my neighbours swishing my head back and forth, hair flying, and limbs akimbo. This is a wonderful example of a lively and dynamic tune at its finest.
Also, Evergreen. A mellow, syncopated song with a haunting tune. A beautifully crafted song with beautiful lyrics, ‘Since we found out that we're invincible, We've been living in a dream world, Since we decided to be infinite, There's no ending and there's no fear’.
Lastly, Four Walls. With its piano ballad it is a gorgeous contrast to the rest of the album. The melody carries the song wonderfully with well layered vocal harmonies, and I believe showcases Georgia’s vocals perfectly.
As you can probably tell, I thoroughly enjoyed this album. It holds well-crafted songs and I believe is a great first album for these two musicians. I also must add that I heard their acoustic version of Mother & Father some time ago and would highly recommend you to listen to it if you can find it on the fabulous world of the internet. It definitely showcases how talented these musicians are.
Meet Broods; the brother-sister duo of Georgia and Caleb Nott who hail from Nelson, and are now based in Auckland. It's been whirlwind time for the two who independently released their debut single Bridges to a heated bidding war to sign the group. Broods signed with Capitol Records in the USA, Polydor Records in the UK, and Island Australia & Universal NZ.
Georgia and Caleb started playing together around the age of ten, more recently, playing together as part of (the now defunct) Peasants. The two started spending time with Joel Little in the studio while he was also working on Lorde's Grammy nominated Pure Heroine.
Their song Bridges has clocked over 300,000 plays on Soundcloud, and Hypemachine says they are “pretty much destined for pop success”.