Bromide released an EP called If All Your Dreams Come True Where Are You Going To Sleep? back in 1998 and then promptly split up. However, frontman Simon Berridge kept the name and carried on with a new line-up (completed by James Hitchins on double bass and Menno Visser on Keyboards and saxophone) and this album is the fruit of those labours.

The success of this album is proved in the fact that it’s a chilled out acoustic album that you can listen to all the way through (not, as I usually find with this sort of thing, one that you can only listen to the first couple of tracks of because it makes you really restless). Yes, “relaxing” is the buzzword here.

From the opening track Snowblind, with it’s sampled drums, harmonica and alt.country guitar feel through the oddly named Stephen Hawking Lonely In The Stars and Fears For George Best to the brief closer 2 The 1, Bromide show themselves to be an accomplished band with a knack for writing good songs and hark back to a time when indie meant independent (as this album is released through their own label).

It’s not often that acoustic bands try to be interesting (or even good) anymore. Bromide are a band who know that that doesn’t have to be the way.

Label: Scratchy
Release date: 15th October 2001

Tracklist:

1. Snowblind
2. Rollercoaster
3. Records On
4. Butcher Boy
5. Racing Track
6. Car Park Craters (Shining On)
7. Stephen Hawking Lonely in the Stars
8. Fears for George Best
9. Safety Net
10. Hide it in the Churches
11. 2 the 1