Mansions / Dig Up The Dead / Burning House Records
Christopher Browder knows he isn’t perfect. He knows he has flaws, similar to those most adolescents secretly carry in their pocket, and the way he reviews his bottled emotions is what drives the American songwriter’s second album. He isn’t the type to croon or break out into a guitar solo that etches out his blues with every pick. He’s a lyricist, one that uses the frailty in his voice to connect with a listener’s youthful character. On a level or two, Dig Up The Dead is a reflection of Brand New’s The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me and Taking Back Sunday’s Tell All Your Friends, where well-crafted rants have you relating every line to your own life story before cascading into an assault of bold alternative riffs (“Blackest Sky”, “Dig Up The Dead”).
What differentiates Browder from the grandiose is his taste. Whereas Dig Up The Dead has a seamless flow and pushes to be empowering, it strips down to reveal a mix of dark, broody fuzz rock jams.”Close That Door” is cathartic with it’s honesty, while “Seven Years” is a raw piece of work displaying the creative backbone that binds the record. “If I find that wormhole then I’ll take it back,” Browder laments at the halfway point, before a build-up channels inner angst and the worst kind of heartbreak that’s hard to unshake after a few listens.
Download: “Blackest Sky”, “Close That Door”
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