Billy Bremner No Ifs, Buts, Maybes

More than a quarter of a century after Rockpile disbanded, the group continues to live on in the form of Billy Bremner. For those who remember the famed band as a partnership between Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds, well, it was actually more than that. Sure, those blokes defined the public persona, getting all of the attention in the press and on stage. But playing the good soldier was Bremner, the other guitarist, whose chiming fretwork, songwriting craft, and appealing harmonies rounded out their largely retro-1950s sound.

Take a look at their one full-blown, official release, the aptly named Seconds of Pleasure, and you'll see that Bremner co-authored five of the seven original tracks. After Rockpile hit the rockpile, Bremner continued to play the supporting role, albeit briefly, with The Pretenders, fashioning the memorable hook on the mega-hit Back on the Chain Gang, and playing on other tracks. Since then, unfortunately, Bremner has largely existed in the shadows, releasing just two albums in some 20 years. Now, though, he's returned with his third effort, an intoxicating collection of songs that are worthy of being mistaken for Rockpile's second outing, if one were to exist.

Recorded in Sweden with a fine backing band, Bremner bursts forth with a dozen carefully crafted nuggets. From start to finish, he plays riffs that don't quit; dashes off catchy melodies that live on long after you've shut off your CD player (or iPod), and fashions harmonies that fill the room with the same heavenly feel of an Everly Brothers classic. Starting with a rockabilly attitude that's filtered through a power pop sensibility, Bremner strikes hard with the opening track, “They Don't Come Much Better,” an unabashed ode to his steady. The theme continues on “Only The Sound Of My Heart,” an uptempo ballad about love that just doesn't quit. In a fit of nostalgia, he sings convincingly of renewing love with an old flame in “Where We Still Call Home,” a pastiche of 1960s harmonies and guitar hooks that demands you hit the repeat button. And when he sings that he's tired of people telling him to do something else with his life in the Beatlesque “Get A Job,” you can feel his frustration.

What Bremner has succeeded in doing is to create something wonderfully new out of something old, he's taken a patented approach to riffs, rhythms and melodic vocals, and refashioned them into a familiar sound that still manages to feel fresh and vital. Moreover, he does so in a way that is befitting a journeyman's his intelligent lyrics about middle-aged romance, friendship and work are so accessible that you can to relate to the limitations he describes. No ifs, buts or maybes, this is, in large part, the second coming of Rockpile.