My Double, My Brother

What We Found Beneath The Ground

Written by: DR on 13/02/2012 17:36:28

After meeting through their university's music program in 2007, the members of what is now My Double, My Brother originally formed under the band name The Fragrance. They began leading music in their school's chapel, but it wasn't long until they felt the desire to write and record their own material - and they did: several EPs. However, the band soon shifted in direction, changed their name, and eventually released their debut full-length, "What We Found Beneath The Ground", early in 2011.

My Double, My Brother play the kind of indie rock that's all the rage at the moment due to successes of Arcade Fire and Mumford & Sons. As you'd expect from a band from the west coast of California, their sound reflects the warming, uplifting nature of their state, and it draws in fairly equal measure the optimistic styles of the likes of Dear And The Headlights, the spiritual folk-y style of mewithoutYou and Mumford & Sons, while the vocals sound staggeringly similar to Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra.

While My Double, My Brother are ultimately doing little, if nothing, to separate themselves from the likes of the aforementioned bands, "What We Found Beneath The Ground" is a good listen nonetheless. It smacks of it being their debut in that there's some degree of inconsistency throughout; some songs are really good, whereas others are merely solid. It's no coincidence that some of the best songs are also some of the most energetic and uplifting. The layers of energetic folk-y instruments in "The Parade" make it one of the better songs because of its energy, while "We Watched It Burn" has shades of 90s indie about it with its opening riff, but eventually grows from that with the use of a chorus of "woaaahs". Inversely, those 'solid' efforts are usually the slower songs such as "They Built Them All To Last" and "The Land That Drinks The Rain", which are certainly not bad, but they lack the same character that seems to come so naturally to the faster efforts.

This folk/indie sound has exploded recently with the Grammy success of Arcade Fire and the mainstream explosion of Mumford & Sons, so there is obvious potential here, especially considering how capable My Double, My Brother prove themselves to be over the course of the album. They are not yet on their way to such heights, nor are they about to distinguish themselves from the pack, but, despite the drawbacks to "What We Found Beneath The Ground", there is something instantly likeable and warming about My Double, My Brother.

7

Download: The Parade, We Watched It Burn
For The Fans of: Dear And The Headlights, mewithoutYou, Mumford & Sons, Arcade Fire
Listen: Bandcamp

Release Date 12.03.2011
Self-Released

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