Top 50 Debut Albums - No.44 "Give Blood" Brakes (2005)

Brakes were only supposed to be a fun side-project but as soon as I picked up a copy of their debut album I was hooked and I don't think it left my virtual turntable for another 6 months.

Brakes were formed to provide an outlet for the songs of Eamon Hamilton and featured multi-talented brothers Thomas & Alex White (of Electric Soft Parade amongst many other bands) and Marc Beatty of The Tenderfoot. Eamon had formerly played keyboards on tour with British Sea Power where he gained a bit of a reputation for being unpredictable and used to regularly leave the stage to walk amongst the audience bashing a drum.

Give Blood is full of short blasts of indie-punk genius and includes several tunes that fail to crack the minute mark. Short songs with witty lyrics are another of my weak spots and you'll struggle to find an album that better scratches that itch. The album also includes Liela Moss of The Duke Spirit on a great version of Jackson, the Johnny Cash & June Carter duet, and Brighton based all-girl group The Pipettes on Sometimes Always by The Jesus and Mary Chain.

The video below of Hi, How Are You? is 50 seconds of vitriol that perfectly captures the frustration of people talking during the quiet bits of gigs rather than listen to the band they paid to see.



.