Brookville: Life in the Shade (Unfiltered)

Ivy’s Andy Chase has released a second album as Brookville; the album will appeal to diehard Brookville fans and Ivy completists alike, but will have a hard time turning anyone else on. Brookville’s debut, Wonderfully Nothing, seems to have had all of Chase’s best solo material as Life in the Shade sounds like a sub par rehash. “Break Yourself” is one of the more memorable tracks here, but comes off as romantically contrived and overly earnest.

Faring better is “Nothing’s Meant to Last,” featuring a great call-and-response vocal turn from Brazilian Girls’ members Didi Gutman and Sabina Sciubba. Unfortunately, the song reminds you of how well Chase collaborates with Ivy’s Dominique Durand (she’s got better pipes than him) and how they’ve managed to keep putting out consistently good records. Even though the first Brookville album was pretty good, this new one can’t avoid comparisons to Ivy and seems to drag along for a very long hour. (www.myspace.com/brookville)

4 Blips out of 10

By Nick Hyman

11/2006