Album review: The Something Brothers' "Apollo"

The Something Brothers

*Apollo*

(Argosy Records)

The Something Brothers have gotten the band back together again. After first gaining national attention in the early 1990s, the Bloomington-Normal based five-piece returns with a crisply produced 10-track album *Apollo.* The title track is a soaring appeal for refuge from a crazy world: “Apollo help me hide away / where I can find some peace from this insanity,” frontman Scott Lee Wilson sings over richly layered guitar, drum and bass. “Fuzzle” is an exuberant rocker loaded with 1980s pop culture references and the catchiest guitar chord progression on the album. The band can be quirky too, as on the upbeat and rockabilly-twinged “Tree Full of Bees.” The guitar interplay is hectic and herky jerky and matches the lyrics, at times sung with a slight country twang: This metaphorical tree of bees “makes us smile /It keeps us young / Just like good drugs / It’s something not to be afraid of / It’s alive.” “Semi precious” is a self-deprecating, tears-in-my-beer rocker about hard-knocks. The lyrics “it’s been one on the chin after one on the chin after one on the chin” fade into a wall-of-sound guitar finale. The Bros get edgy and topical on “Burn The Evidence,” a rollicking help wanted ad for a “gun for hire”: “What to do with the body of the President? / Roll it up in a rug and burn the evidence.”

Appearing Dec. 15 at Martyr's in Chicago. Visit band's webpage for more information about album sales, including formats available.

Link to the original version of this review--appearing in the October 2018 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine. Click the link the navigate PDF file to page 26.