{"id":29992,"date":"2025-09-24T05:30:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29992"},"modified":"2025-08-26T14:37:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T18:37:41","slug":"album-review-the-brigadier-sailing-the-seven-neuroses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/24\/album-review-the-brigadier-sailing-the-seven-neuroses\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Brigadier — Sailing the Seven Neuroses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I reviewed The Brigadier\u2019s Wash Away the Day<\/i> back in 2017, and named it one of the year\u2019s best<\/a>. Here we are eight years later, and the Brigadier (Matt Williams to his neighbors) returns with Sailing the Seven Neuroses<\/i>. The Pet Sounds<\/i>-y textures and male-rethink-of-girl group vibes are still here, but they\u2019re buried deep inside a modern (or let\u2019s say timeless) rock package that has more grit and muscle than before.<\/p>\n

Imagine Pilot, Badfinger or Raspberries mixed with a bit of Hudson Brothers, and then any and all of the twee-ness skimmed off the top. What you\u2019d find is something not unlike the Brigadier circa 2025. Synthy bits that suggest \u201880s Gary Numan are seamlessly melded with Beach Boys harmonies and Fountains of Wayne rock crunch.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 knowing way with a melody \u2013 and how to arrange it \u2013 is on brilliant display on tunes like \u201cThe Purge.\u201d And rather than sequence the songs with a few seconds between each, he\u2019s programmed Sailing the Seven Neuroses<\/i> in such a way that it\u2019s a seamless whole. Not, perhaps a concept album. Not, it would seem, a unified suite of songs. But a collection that feels like all of its parts belong together: that\u2019s the quality that underpins this album.<\/p>\n

The songs blow by in a breeze, with Williams\u2019 breathy yet assured vocals as the element that ties everything together. The bouncy Sgt. Pepper<\/i>-style pop of \u201cPeace With the Poison\u201d coexists nicely with the summery, elegiac SMiLE<\/i>-ish \u201cPerfect Surprise.\u201d The baroque balladry of the first part of \u201cHot Solace\u201d gives way to its uptempo second half; it\u2019s a progressive pop gem that clocks in under four minutes.<\/p>\n

The spirit of Brian Wilson is most evident on the title track; if you luxuriate in mid-sixties Beach Boys studio work, you\u2019ll, um, smile when you hear it. But then there\u2019s the muscular rocking of \u201cMan About the House.\u201d Part of The Brigadier\u2019s unique gift is that it all works, it works together, and it doesn\u2019t feel scattered.<\/p>\n

The bloop-bleepiness of \u201cHeaven\u2019s in My Heart\u201d could have been on an album called The Brigadier Loves You<\/i>, if you get my drift. \u201cIt\u2019s You I Think About\u201d is creamy synthy pop with an alluring rock edge. \u201cEveryday an Ordeal\u201d is retro in character, but in a good way. The glam-rocky \u201cWhat About Tomorrow?\u201d is fun, stomping rock a la Sweet. And \u201cDon\u2019t Go to Bed With a Bad Mind\u201d is the Brigadier\u2019s rethink of British popsike, late \u201860s edition.<\/p>\n

A wonderful collection, Sailing the Seven Neuroses<\/i> is a shiny pop delight of the first order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I reviewed The Brigadier\u2019s Wash Away the Day back in 2017, and named it one of the year\u2019s best. Here we are eight years later, and the Brigadier (Matt Williams […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29993,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,62,65],"tags":[3324],"class_list":["post-29992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-the-brigadier","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29994,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29992\/revisions\/29994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}