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Brave Shores - La Hoo La La

Brave Shores

I love pleasant surprises. This popped up on an auction site and it looked interesting, so I put in the minimum bid and forgot about it ... until I got a message telling me I'd won and should go pick it up. It was still sealed, which was a bonus. Of course, the cardboard dust and tight fit was irritating, and I'm sure the extra bit of unwanted scuffing as on the record as I tried to get it out of the sleeve is just the way things are nowadays, apparently. This is why I seldom buy new stuff.

Still, this was about the music, and I had deliberately not looked up the band in advance. I was sort of expecting some indie artsy-fartsy stuff, but honestly, I had no idea what to expect.

From the opening notes of the title track, the album was one unexpected surprise after another. Brave Shores is a synth-pop duo comprised of Jay and Stefanie McCarrol. The credits are a little sparse, which is too bad. It merely says Jay vocals / production and Stefanie vocals. Then, a little further down, it says the album was produced by Jay and Ryan Worsley. I'm guessing "production" means instruments. Why not just say that?

Kids these days.

credits

Irregardless, the album is centred around the talents of Jay and Stefanie ... ick, even writing that in jest makes me feel more stupider than a bag of hammers. Whatever, I'll just double down and keep going. After all, this is my blathering nonsense, so I can pretty much do what I want. However, I don't want to appear to be dismissive of the album.

If you're a fan of dreamy synth pop, this album will be a treat. Of course, for those who want to try and stuff this in a box and define the duo based on comparisons to their peers, the general feeling I get is they're a little like Metric, with Stefanie channelling a less wispy version of Emily Haines, and Arcade Fire and Diamond Rings, whose stellar "Put Me On" should have made John O'Regan a star ... but that was well over a decade ago now.

Oddly, this kind of pop has managed to stay somewhat stagnant for a while now, and despite being embraced by the indie community, it's nothing new - which is fine by me. If it's good, it's good.

The strength in Brave Shores is the voice created by the blending of Jay and Stefanie's vocals and harmonies. It's so tasty. While they each take turns being the focal point, the duties are split pretty evenly, although the sense I get, even after listening to this several times, is that Stefanie is the more prominent of the lead vocalists.

But it's the songs with Jay that stood out. How's that for playing both ends against the middle?

lyrics

Of course, now that I've said that I'll immediately contradict myself by pulling out a couple of my favourite songs on the album. Which wasn't as easy as it sounds, as the album - the entire album - is a cohesive and mesmerizing listen.

Still, there's always a part of my brain that thinks in terms of mixtape highlights ... and while there are no weak tracks, there are some real standouts.

The first one to rise above the rest was "We Are the New VR," sung by Stefanie, and it's absolutely amazing. I'm not sure what it is that elevates the track, but it just gets the little hairs, of which there are many on my ears, to stand up. Yeah, getting old and having to shave your ears sucks.

This song is immediately followed by "Lazy Bones," which was sung by Jay, and the retro-sequenced bass just seemed to be the perfect follow-up.

lyrics

The album was such a wonderful surprise, and while it was so good, this kind of nearly perfect indie pop is just a tad out of sync with what now passes for commercial music ... not necessarily a bad thing. This was a fantastic record, and in a perfect world this would have gotten a lot more attention.

Then again, my ability to be the barometer of what's good was never really all that reliable. I still know what I like, and the older I get, the harder it is to try and appreciate what's going on around me. I tend to gravitate and respond to music that feels somewhat familiar and is structured like, well - music.

back cover

This came out in 2018, and from what I can gather, the sibling duo (I've been trying to learn more about them) did get some attention, but it didn’t last, which is a shame. La Hoo La La was only released on vinyl by Universal Music Canada. Their self-titled EP, also released by Universal in 2014, was available on CD, but the truth is, physical media is kind of a dead end these days - unfortunate for those of us who still love something tangible.

The good news is, both releases are available to stream, and you definitely should.

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