Hypnotic Nights
Warner Bros
2012
Rating: 7 chapped lips out of 10
Nashville's Jeff the Brotherhood are one of my favorite live bands going these days, and their records ain't half bad either. Somehow they manage to couple psychedelic stoner rock with Beach Boys-influenced pop songs and make it work. This newest record "Hypnotic Nights" is their first for a major label, and as you might expect it has a little more polish on it. I guess Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys had a hand in the recording process, though I'm not sure anyone should care unless they're entering a trivia contest.
Ultimately, despite the label jump and fancy producer, it still *mostly* sounds like a Jeff the Brotherhood record. Not every song is a rocker, there's a little weird instrumentation here and there (saxophone, keyboards, and I think I hear some glockenspiel even), and it sounds really clean. But there are a ton of great, catchy songs - "Sixpack" is a clear favorite, one of the songs of the summer (even if it is fall now that I'm getting around to listening to this). A few of the old fans might grumble about the band's shiny new wrapping, but it's still the same great music inside to me.
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