Sydney’s Imperial Broads, on the strength of their new single ‘Control’, are a perfect amalgam of day-glo bubble gum pop and cutting, excoriating gritty indie rock with shabby leather jackets. It’s a delightful mixture: a jangling , ringing, shimmering guitars, muscular wandering bass and celestial layered harmonies with a pop sensibility and euphoric afterglow.
The delivery has a sneery kohl-dawbed eye-rolling wryness that’s like female version of The Jesus and Mary Chain with Ronettes-like harmonies, and a perfectly executed weary cynicism in the lyrics:
You’re bored to tears, and I’ve got so many ideas, but I know,
You don’t want to hear it.
I know you don’t want to hear it.
My teenaged countenance is shattered by such confidence.
And I’m nobody’s sister.
I’m nobody’s little sister.
This is exciting stuff. Songwriter and bass player Lauren Crew says of the track:
I was on a Patti Smith and Joy Division bender when I wrote this song and both artists definitely influenced aspects of the arrangement and melodies.
Out through Broken Stone Records/Remote Control Records, and surely more incontrovertible evidence of the Marrickville sound, you can download/stream the single here or get through the link below:
Imperial Broads are Pip Smith, Eve Lande and Lauren Crew, with go-to drummer extraordinaire Nick Kennedy (also seen with other Backseat Mafia favourites Anatomy Class and Reality Instructors) on drums.
