For plenty of bands, going “lo-fi” isn’t a pointed aesthetic choice so much as one made one out of total financial necessity, a chance to sketch out ideas until budgets are secured for proper studio time and creative processes refined to write proper bridges in place of boilerplate feedback. A few years ago, Mississippi-based musician Cole Furlow kicked his can down shitgaze hall by releasing a steady trickle of feedback-swathed pop nuggets as Dead Gaze, which eventually led to a self-titled compilation of several 7’’ singles and cassettes released earlier this year. When a friend offered 11 days of free time at famed Mississippi studio Sweet Tea, he seized the chance to clean up his act. On Brain Holiday, he’s swept away the detritus and placed his personality front and center, revealing a sharp ear for psychedelia-indebted garage rock that doesn't rely on obfuscation to get across.
The new approach is clear from album opener “Yuppies Are Flowers", which jauntily layers several instruments before ceding the stage to Furlow’s supple voice. Here, that voice grounds what might have been a run-of-the-mill metaphor—people as flowers growing on a tree!—with melodic intuition, giving honesty to a lyric about taking your time to get your act together. “The kids are alright” isn’t a new thesis, but Furlow avoids sounding defensive or snotty about his perceived complacency. If he’s arguing with an imaginary parent about his life plan, his response isn’t a slammed door but a believable reassurance that everything will be alright. (“When you grow up, you’ll see/ All the things that you wanted to see from me”) It’s brave but not boisterous, helping him avoid coming off like just another millennial brat you read about in magazine think pieces. His vocal flexibility, which allows him to sometimes sound as congenial as a band like Rooney—a decade ago, parts of this record would’ve been catnip for The O.C.’s music supervisor—or as unrestrained as Howlin’ Wolf, gives Brain Holiday its nuance. The twinkling arrangement on “Stay, Don’t Stay” might’ve scanned as a little fey were Furlow not there to sound knowingly fragile; meanwhile, “Rowdy Jungle” maximizes its utility as a slacker anthem (“Please believe me when I say there is absolutely nothing that could get in our way") through a drawl sounds completely sure of itself but totally uninterested in convincing you.
Though Brain Holiday’s lyric sheet would stand alone as a thesis of things Cole Furlow Believes, his ear for collage and crunchy guitar hooks help elevate his words beyond mere didacticism. Most of the album is largely built from familiar garage rock chords—Weezer’s Green Album feels like an easy reference point, as do Ty Segall’s fuzzier records—but that free studio time enabled Furlow to incorporate more disparate elements, such as the mean horn that cuts through the late period Beatles-esque “Runnin on the Moon” and the plaintive piano progression driving “Breathing Creatures”. A more amateur recording definitely wouldn’t have sounded as varied or unmuddled by textural confusion.
When he does default to old habits and amp up the reverb, the creative intent seems more certain. “You’ll Carry on Real Nice”, originally included on the self-titled album and re-recorded here, sounds properly frayed and blown out as Furlow’s voice is stretched to its breaking point. Similarly, “A Different Way” wraps a bold lyric—”I believe there is a different way/ And there’s nothing we can’t do”—in a rumbling, sinuous column of noise like a monument to his willpower. Not all of his decisions are outright home runs, but there’s rarely an unpleasant moment; it's a confident, catchy record that makes you wonder if all lo-fi acts would sound this good if given that studio time, or if Furlow's a real voice of his generation. My bet's on the latter. In the album’s promotional material, Furlow stated his wish to make an album for people to listen “when they need something to get their brain off whatever it is that's making them go to the music in the first place." Brain Holiday sounds like that kind of safe space, but it’s also a testament to what can be accomplished when you’re a little distracted.
