Broder Daniel – Cruel Town (2003)

Broder Daniel (Brother Daniel) is a Swedish alternative rock band from Gothenburg. I first got to know the band in the mid-00's when one of my friends played this album at one of our evenings dedicated to listening to new music. Around that time I really liked melancholic music so Broder Daniel's sad and melodic indie rock fit just my musical taste. It was only later on when I realised that I must have heard this band before in Lukas Moodysson's film Fucking Åmål (Show Me Love). That film was really popular at least in the Nordic Countries, but I had completely forgotten the music until I got introduced to the band properly. The early career of the band was quite endearing, since the sounds were quite simple and the pronunciation of English was not that great, but it just made the music more likeable. Cruel Town already shows a more confident sounding band.



On Cruel Town, the sounds are quite big and it seems clear that they're taking their influences from late 80's and early 90's alternative rock bands who used to use huge guitar walls in their music. The first ones that come to mind are Jesus & Mary Chain and Ride. Then again, there's something truly Nordic in the sounds of Broder Daniel. The melancholic melodies and freely flowing sounds are maybe why.

The album starts with sharp electric guitars that quite soon explode into western film style pounding rock in the title-track Cruel Town. The melodies are very melancholic but still filled with youthful rebellion. This song is followed by an even bigger sounding Shoreline, where the guitars paint massive landscapes in the style of British Sea Power. When We Were Winning continues the huge sounds. This song sounds like it's been made for arena gigs. I can see the crowds going wild for this. The chorus is really huge in sound. Dark Star finally loosens up the mood a little bit. It's still a full on rock song, but the tempo is slower and the melody has more upbeat tones. Somehow some of this sounds a bit like Kula Shaker to me. Burn Heart Burn is one of the most obvious hit songs and the yells in the beginning of the song make a true impression of a stadium band. Hardened Heart is a bit more emo kind of a song. The sharp guitars resemble those of some 80's hard rock bands and the melodies are truly desperate. Army of Dreamers continues in similar vein, but the sounds are a bit more lo-fi. The chorus is really masterful in its catchiness. Only Life I Know has great sharp picked electric guitars. The doubled guitar track makes great melodies even without the vocals. Out of This Town reminds me of another, less emo-style Swedish band, Shout Out Louds. The sounds are maybe slightly more 90's, but there are very similar catchy rock tunes in these two bands. Dump for Broken Dreams continues the stadium rock style of the album and doesn't really bring anything new to the sounds of the album. The album ends with What Clowns Are We, which is closest to a ballad that this album goes, which isn't that close.

The music video for Shoreline is a pretty basic music video. It features a live performance with the audience's sounds in the background. There are also some sequences with the lead singer in a car. Why this video is worth watching is because it shows what the band looks like and what it looks like is how pretty much every emo band looked like around the beginning of 00's. Well, the lead singer at least looks like that.

Cruel Town is most likely the best album Broder Daniel ever made, but even that has its slight flaws. Even theough the music in pretty much every song is really good, all of the songs sound pretty much the same. That makes the album sound a bit boring as a whole. Still, Broder Daniel is one of the most memorable Swedish bands from the turn of the millennium.

Listen to the album on Spotify.