Stream: Cary Brothers, ‘Crush’

Kevin Bronson on March 27th, 2018

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Singer-songwriter Cary Brothers has always had one foot in the world of troubadours and the other in the hyper-romantic pop music of the 1980s. The influences suited the Nashville native well on his early EPs, two albums and many songs for film and TV, including, most famously, “Blue Eyes” from the “Garden State” soundtrack. Two years ago he even indulged his love for ’80s dance music in the fun side project SD3.

Brothers’ third full-length (and first in eight years) is titled “Bruises,” and it’s out April 27. And it sees him going full-on ’80s. Or, as he admits wryly, “All my years of being an angsty kid listening to ’80s Britpop delay guitars seems to have sunk in deep.”

He elaborates: “I was always pegged as a singer/songwriter because I’m just one guy writing songs, but my heroes were artists like The Cure and Peter Gabriel, who wrote in huge, melodic, romantic sonic landscapes. I was tired of feeling confined to a genre, so I finally made a record that reflects the music that has always inspired me. After some tough years personally, I needed to be inspired again. I needed to move forward.”

As the new single “Crush” reveals, Brothers rivals perhaps only Robert Pollard among natives of Middle America at affecting a British accent.

What’s the story with “Crush?” Brothers explains in a letter titled “Dear Molly Ringwald,” published today. (Please, nobody tell him that the actress was portraying a character in “The Breakfast Club.”) It is sweet. In writing the single, Brothers aspired to create “my very own song that Molly Ringwald might have danced to in that library in Shermer, Illinois.” Especially if you came of age in that era, you’ll feel “Crush” down to your bones.

Read the whole letter here.

||| Stream: “Crush”