Review Summary: Break into your house like, yeah. Messing up your shit like, yeah. Shoes up on your cream sofa get inside your head like…
Imagine it for a second – you’re listening to “Gumshield”, the opening track to Don Broco’s fourth full-length LP. You’re observing the masterfully built-up swells that narrate the song; the verse grips you with its seductive and gradual incline into explosive, epic, crescendos reserved to make you feel like you’re soaring with the eagles, with a tornado of heavy grooves and riffs in the horizon awaiting your arrival, so they can pummel you back down into the dirt for the proceeding verse. With that, you venture deeper into the rabbit hole and enjoy the album’s numerous compositions that utilise this template with a mantra-like quality. You’re in awe at the grand scope of the songwriting: the orchestra, the synths, the heavy-duty grooves, and the serenade of vocal melodies handled by Rob Damiani and Matt Donnelly. It all culminates into a deeply gratifying heavy rock experience that has tangible depth to it. Then after a few listens, your ears finally gravitate towards the lyrics in “Gumshield” and you realise this bustling vigour and zealotic purpose is spearheading a narrative about a dude body slamming in the pit. Evidentially, the gumshield is there to
“protect him from himself” as he throws himself into the masses, backed only with sheer will and the heroic soundtrack Don Broco composes for him.
To a layman this contrast may sound messy, however, Don Broco makes it work, and efficiently I might add. After fully absorbing
Technology at the time, I eventually realised the lyrics were hilariously outrageous and surprisingly easy to overlook, because of how well the grand instrumentals overshadow them. Conversely, their middleclass dude-bro aesthetics were a perfidious veil as well, used to accentuate themes of excess – however, you'd be kidding yourself to believe this was done with earnest intentions. The hypermasculine jock presentation permeates every inch of Don Broco, to the point of making the band name a living, breathing character: the chunky guitars represent the vein-riddled biceps popping out of Don Broco’s tight Gucci shirt; the lush orchestra and energetic synths front his vanity and hedonistic lifestyle; while the lyrics represent Broco’s unhinged, obnoxious, happy-go-lucky demeanour. Indeed, back in 2018 the band caught me off guard somewhat, as I tried to ascertain whether this was being ironic or not. Thankfully, it was, but it wasn’t all that obvious at the time.
This is the distinction between Don Broco and a band like Electric Six, say. With Electric Six its comedy is overt, since the music represents their themes. With Don Broco, for the uninitiated, their heavy, groove-laden rock music and posh image could easily misconstrue their lyrics as being unironic, and completely out of touch with reality. Thankfully, Don Broco is fully aware of what they’re doing, and with that,
Amazing Things goes all in with that motif, as they play the music straight, while subtly winking at you with their outrageous themes. The first half of this LP is absolutely frothing with massive tunes – big riffs, huge melodies being bounced across the spectrum like a game of tennis (achieved with Matt and Rob’s very different vocal styles accommodating each other), and a multifaceted handling on instrumentation. Sure, the second half of the record loses some of its momentum, with songs like “Bruce Willis” and “Bad 4 Ur Health” coming across as more annoying than funny, but on the whole, the album is crammed with disparate styles in mind and will have you hooked until the end. Next to
Technology this is a much more enjoyable album as well, since it’s more concise, focused and less bloated than its predecessor. Overall, there’s a lot here for rock fans to like, but there’s just as much atmospheric synth here to sway people that way too. Regardless, this is an absolute blast to sit through, and is one of the best carefree albums you are likely to hear in 2021.
