It was 1995 and I was working at Disneyland. I made the trek from Redlands to Anaheim to try out the experience of working at the happiest place on Earth and at the time Oasis were king. My daily trip to and from treated me to a seemingly endless cycle of Oasis songs playing on my stereo and eventually I bought What’s The Story Morning Glory and played it to death. The year is now 2011 and I sit at my computer listening to Viva Brother and I’m waxing nostalgic as the boys in this new band emulate as often and as well as they can the formula that Liam and Noel Gallagher used to become Britpop God’s. In all fairness I never considered Oasis to be much but a reboot of The Beatles but I still enjoyed them. The same can be said for Viva Brother. The fact that they are carbon copies of bands like Oasis, Blur, etc is a bit of a let down considering, but the band manages to replicate the music as if quite possibly Oasis never left, just kind of became a bit less talented and continued on.

It’s almost impossible for me to review this album without making a thousand and one references to Oasis, see the bands video for New Years Day, close your eyes, let your imagination do the judging. It kind of puts all of the bands quirks in one basket: The guitar riffs of Oasis, the vocals of blur, the quirky choruses of The Fratellis. The rest of the album is pretty much more of the same somewhat enjoyable throwbacks but all together unoriginal tunes. Good, but not it’s own. Sorry Brother but maybe next go around you’ll have found what makes your sound more you and homage’s will be slightly less obvious. Better luck next time.