BRONCHO
Natural Pleasure
Broncho Worldwide
I’m constantly listening to new music, to the exclusion of anything older and already reviewed, and though it’s been a long while since BRONCHO’s last release, 2018’s Bad Behavior, it’s been the one album I’ll return to for a close listen, start to finish. Six plus years is plenty of time to wonder if there would be a follow-up, and if so, whether it would match that unique weightless feel. Was it worth the wait? Think of it this way…
You have defeated all the lurking proto-vampires, securing the life-support module you need for the colony ship, and now one final challenge awaits you: swim through the Reservoir of Bliss, filled with a mixture of honey, liquid moonlight, and endorphins, then dance your way in slow motion across the infra-disco you’ll find there, and emerge on the other side to lay on soft grass and dry off in the warm sun. In the background, BRONCHO’s guitar syrup and whispered falsetto choruses are playing.
Natural Pleasure continues the trajectory set in Bad Behavior, with the same sort of modern indie rock-dance instrumentation: voices, strings, drums, and a variety of analog and digital touches to fill things out and give everything a delicate and urgent groove, contradicting itself, like being in a hurry to procrastinate. From the opening lushness of “Imagination” to the closing twin lullabies of “Way Into Magic” and “Dreamin,” the album works through a variety of stress-reducing tactics, from the active to the wistful to the soothing, landing on no particular preference but delivering plenty of quality along the way.
