Brawlers – “Romantic Errors Of Our Youth” [Album Review]

I made a point of getting my hands on a copy of this after having such a fun time seeing the band live in a local fleapit recently. A band who seemed to thoroughly enjoy life, I was hoping the album would be more of the same. However, while there are some great songs littering this album, there are also just as many that don’t quite hit the spot.

Brawlers problems start when they hit the ground running with the absolutely fantastic “Annabel”. It’s a pop punk song that has it all – great lyrics, a huge hook, melody – it’s so good in fact that, no matter how hard they try, the majority of the rest of the album just falls that little bit short in comparison. Don’t get me wrong Romantic Errors Of Our Youth does have moments of the pop-punk brilliance the Yorkshire outfit demonstrated on “Annabel” but there just aren’t enough of them. On the upside though, full of tales about love, life, drink, relationships and growing up,Romantic Errors Of Our Youth is a heartfelt, honest album and songs like “(I’m Having A) Nervous Breakdown” and “Windowmisser” are two minute gems that epitomize everything wonderful about these rough around the edges punk rock mates.

At twenty five minutes long, Romantic Errors Of Our Youth is a brief affair with some really memorable moments. You can best sum up this album with the track “Two Minutes” when frontman Harry sings about having “two minutes to make you love me”. Luckily those two minutes came in the opening track of the album because I’m sure that, had they not, by the end of the album I’d have just wanted to stay good friends.

Track Listing:

01.Annabel
02.Drink And Dial
03.Holding Back
04.High Again
05.N.O.R.E.S.T.
06.Two Minutes
07.(I’m Having A) Nervous Breakdown
08.Windowmisser
09.Medicine
10.Romantic Errors Of Our Youth

Run Time: 25:20
Release Date: 06 April, 2015