Despite an often melancholic air, Bravo! is in fact “an album about celebration and fun.” Sorry Girls’ sophomore album aims itself at being introspective and thoughtful; “these songs are all about self-acceptance, self-affirmation, personal freedom, and letting go,” says lead singer Heather Foster Kirkpatrick. Lyrics like “Second chances are a waste of time”, “Never gonna look back again”, and “Stop for a second and breathe” are the lifeblood of Bravo!, Kirkpatrick’s wistful self-reflections delivered with a cadence that aims to evoke Swiftian poetry and rouse spirits from the bar to the front of the stage.
The Canadian duo’s brand of soft indie certainly helps ease the listener into their world, all pastel colours and neat edges. This isn’t music that will ever be asked to be turned off – especially when it evokes the familiar. The sweet jangle of “Breathe” and the vocal harmonies and rhythm section of “Prettier Things” feels right out of the Fleetwood Mac handbook, but the end result is notably mid level instead of anything defining or exemplary; it’s more Haerts than “Heart of Stone.”
Even for music as anodyne as that on Bravo!, it does sometimes feel a little too like background music. “The Wait”, with its rubbery bass and Wii Sports piano chords, becomes incidental all too easily, despite said interesting features while the final track “If you’re done I’m done” is a piano ballad that is more of an airy waft than any kind of send off, Kirkpatrick’s words floating by like bubbles in a breeze. When a saxophone drops into the picture on the likes of “The Exiles”, it invigorates a track that boasts one of the better vocal hooks (and also brings to mind Swedish duo Grapell). Similarly the sax sees out the heartache hiding in the edge of the lyrics on “Pillar of Salt” while a similar energy breaks through in the final minute of “Sorcery”.
The main reason why it’s hard to imagine anyone ever latching onto Bravo! as any kind of life-changing album is partly down to its conviction. The few refreshing moments described above sit amidst a setlist of tracks that veer on being beige. “Enough is Enough” captures the tone of the Shania Twain-inspired country break up song goes for, but the titular sentiment isn’t wholly convincing, Kirkpatrick lacking the authority and presence to make it feel like it came from the heart.
Even when Bravo! is played loud it feels oddly quiet, especially compared to the punchier exterior the duo’s debut album Deborah had. In comparison, other band member Dylan Konrad Obront’s contribution seems indistinct here. Little touches like the vibrant percussion on “The Exiles” or the glitzy disco shimmer on “Other Side” tiny are features of more interesting paths that could have been explored – or even just mixed higher in the track to leave a greater and more memorable impression.
If Sorry Girls risk anything on Bravo! then it’s fading into the background. There’s not a bad track here, but there are also no standouts either. Apart from a few lightly sparkling moments of likeable indie joy (“The Exiles”, “Pillar of Salt, “Breathe”) the album’s best moments are its most evocative ones. Kirkpatrick might conjure a Phoebe Bridgers-like melancholy on opening track “Parade” (and her reminiscent lyrics – “Missed opportunities / coated in memories / sawdust and cinnamon breeze” – do paint a pretty picture) ,but it pales in comparison in the terms of the lasting impression it leaves. That feeling lingers on Bravo!: you’ve heard this kind of sadness somewhere before – and that time you remembered it afterwards.
