CD of The Week

A few years back, we were introduced to Brigitte Calls Me Baby and their impressive, attention-grabbing mix of simultaneous ‘80s and ‘50s throwback vibes. Frontman Wes Leavins’ voice hits a sweet spot between the iconic Morrissey and the retro, reverb-drenched crooners of a bygone era. The comparisons to The Smiths don’t stop with Leavins’ singing, as the band is clearly in debt to Johnny Marr’s jangling guitars, with a dose of The Killers’ slick bravado thrown in the blender for good measure. But on their second full-length album, Irreversible, what do they do for an encore?

Big sweeping romanticism is what Leavins does in his lyrics… it’s what suits that voice best. He really leans into his Morrissey inflections on Irreversible opener “There Always.” The jangling rocker “I Danced With Another Love in My Dreams” also sounds like a Moz song title. One of the best songs on here, it’s all laid out there in the title, as Leavins dreams of another woman and ponders the meaning of it when he awakens.

“The Pit” is a moody, brooding synth rocker about sinking into depression: “It's a misconception you can turn your life around / When you notice that you've started to drown / There was somewhere I was hoping to go / But then the light turned out and there was nobody home.”

The rocking, driving lead single “Slumber Party” is built around the surprising, seemingly non-sequitur lyric “I bought Blue Velvet on DVD / I brought it to the slumber party.” “Truth is Stranger Than Fiction” may get you thinking about Bad Religion based on its title alone. One of the best songs on Irreversible, Leavins really lets loose vocally here. While it’s quite upbeat musically, he does rhyme the title with the gloomy lyric “I don’t have five years left, that’s my prediction.” The pulsing “These Acts of Which Were Designed” also digs into their love of ‘80s darkness, as does the self-explanatory moping of “I Can’t Have You All to Myself.” On “I Can Take the Sun Out of the Sky,” the band shows off their fondness for those big, U2-inspired widescreen guitar sounds.

With Irreversible, Brigitte Calls Me Baby hone their sound without branching out in any truly new directions. But it’s still a fresh enough vibe to mash up two different eras from the past into an exciting new band. Brigitte Calls Me Baby play a sold out show at The Foundry at The Fillmore on May 12th and you’ll surely be able to hear Leavins’ voice reverberating loud and clear to the back of the room.