Despite being born in New Zealand and raised in Britain, Peter Bruntnell is usually spoken of as an Americana artist, and often mistaken for an American. This is due in no small part to the fact that his 1999 Normal For Brigwater album was recorded with the help of musicians from Son Volt. On top of this, his albums have frequently been released through Stateside labels.
Retrospective is, as the title suggests, a career spanning collection. It features tracks from the eight albums he has made to date since his debut - Cannibal on Almo Sounds - in 1995.
Bruntnell is the type of artist who frequently wins plaudits from his peers (mostly in the US) including Kurt Wagner, Peter Buck and Willy Vlautin although this admiration has largely failed to win him a significant fan-base.
The best contender for memorable tune in this collection is breezy Here Comes The Swells lifted from his Ends Of The Earth album.
Much of the general lack of enthusiasm towards his output can, in my view, be put down to the largely solemn and unchanging tempo of the arrangements. The range is from slow to medium slow throughout the 17 tracks on this record and this left me longing for at least one track to cut loose and liven things up a little.
In addition, Bruntnell’s glass half empty view of life is not romantically bleak, just rather dull. Take a song like By The Time My Head Gets To Phoenix which takes cryogenic body freezing tanks in Arizona as its subject. Apparently the dearly departed in England who can't afford to send their whole bodies overseas opt for the more economical option of just mailing their heads. Most song writers would milk this for the black humour but Bruntnell's tone remains resolutely droll even as he sings "when they bring me back to life, you can introduce me to your wife".
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The one 'new' song on the collection is actually a re-recorded version of a 2004 track featuring Sarah Joyce (aka 'breakthrough artist' Rumer) portentously called Played Out. From the just got out of bed look on the cover, you might imagine the title sums up how Bruntnell feels.
Peter Bruntnell's website
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