Album Review- Dead Gaze Brain Holiday

Nashville – The value of making music in a studio has been undermined in the last decade as more and more bedroom projects are breaking into the indie mainstream unaided by expensive recording equipment. If there was ever an album to turn the tide of this trend, it’s Brain Holiday, the latest effort from Mississippi musician, Dead Gaze.

Brain Holiday, released via FatCat Record’s imprint Palmist, is the first album Dead Gaze has recorded in a studio. It shows what professional recording can do for the musicians who usually take the lo-fi route, perhaps out of financial necessity. Cole Furlow had been releasing self-recorded EPs, cassettes, and a debut album under the moniker of Dead Gaze until a few months ago when a friend presented him with the opportunity to record at Oxford, Mississippi’s Sweet Tea Studio (a favorite of Animal Collective, Elvis Costello, Modest Mouse). He jumped at the chance to make “an enormous pop record,” as he says.

Brain Holiday isn’t typical, Clear Channel Radio pop. But it is, in Furlow’s words, an album that is “for everyone, not just the know-it-alls and bloggers.” In this instance, an album for everyone is one rife with power chords and grungy vocals reminiscent of early Weezer. Keyboard and synth hooks are layered to soften the garage rock edge, ensuring that songs like “Yuppies Are Flowers” grow on you more and more with each listen.

The emotive “Stay, Don’t Say” slides in unexpectedly with an acoustic guitar picking pattern. The vulnerability in Furlow’s uncharacteristically soft voice is met by a subtle, washed out guitar. Furlow shows off his versatility as a songwriter by swinging from ethereal arrangements like this one and its counterpart “Breathing Creatures” to the anthemic rock songs “You’ll Carry on Real Nice” and “Rowdy Jungle.”

As a producer, Furlow doesn’t lean on reverb to sweep over gaps left by shoddy recording as was done on his earlier work. Instead, he harks back to his earlier fuzzy recordings only to provide texture. Compare “You’ll Carry on Real Nice” to its original version on his 2012 self-titled record, and it’s obvious how much muddling fuzz has been stripped away on the studio album.

The clearer songs present a more confident Dead Gaze. The new album sounds fresh with its combination of pop sensibilities, slightly obnoxious garage rock, and washed out indie synths. Finishing it off are flourishes of organ keyboard and horns.

Dead Gaze just finished an east coast tour with Dent May. Writer Phil McCausland recently praised Dead Gaze’s live show saying that “Furlow turned me into a fucking fanboy.” With the snowballing success of Brain Holiday, Dead Gaze will hopefully be back on the road or back in the studio again soon.

About
Latest Posts

Caroline McDonald

My first memory is of singing Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” quietly to myself during preschool naptime. Perhaps it’s because I’m from Nashville where an instrument lives in every home, but music has gripped me for as long as I can remember.

After dabbling in many parts of the music industry—recording studios, PR, management, labels, publishing—I’m expanding into music journalism because I’m yet to find anything more rewarding that finding and sharing new music.

A longtime sucker for girls with guitars, my musical taste unabashedly follows the songwriting lineage of Dolly Parton and includes Patty Griffin, Gillian Welch, and Neko Case. But not to pigeonhole myself, my music love is big love that stretches from R.L. Burnside to Animal Collective to Lord Huron.

I’ve recently moved home to Nashville after living in Boston and Big Sur for several years. I’d forgotten how music pours onto the streets ten hours a day, seven days a week. I’m honored to share the creative explosion happening here. If your band is in the area or of the area, please reach out!