On Tuesday Paper Club, Scotland's Brògeal show you all the bands they can be. The way the quintet encounters sound is the way they encounter thirst. "And when you get fed up of the stout, move on to the wine!/ Join the Tuesday Paper Club, there’s solace in the news/ If that don’t quite cut it, there’s solace in the booze!" goes one boisterous line on the title track.
The album's singles have already given us a good sense of their respect for Celtic folk tradition, jangle pop, and beer-stained melodies with the singles "Friday On My Mind," "Vicar Street Days," and the title track. But their debut, which is officially out today, shows the brilliant multifaceted layers that Brògeal contain -- skiffle, polka, ska-punk, psychedelic folk, and wall-of-sound pop.
Tuesday Paper Club shifts gears every track -- from the tender earnest ballad "Scarlet Red," to the stream-of-consciousness interlude "Dippin' n Divin'," to the Neutral Milk Hotel tenderness of "Apples And Leaves." Then there's the pearlescent "Stuck Inside" and the instrumental odyssey of "Lonesome Boatman." It's all so fucking different and all-around engaging. I am ready to grab a pint, engage in some blether, and maybe a few drinks later indulge in a good cry. There are shimmers of the Replacements, the Pogues, Bruce Springsteen, and '50s rock 'n' roll. Tuesday Paper Club feels like it's in conversation with decades of rock and folk music without cosplaying as any of their predecessors. Brògeal pay homage to the generations that came before while bringing their own flavor to Celtic punk and traditional folk.
Listen to Tuesday Paper Club. Buy the album here.
