Pennan Brae – Lit LP

Pennan Brae decided to make a proper comeback with his latest offering to the broader auditorium. His latest full-length recording, simplistically named Lit, offers ten cheerful rock’n’roll compositions gradually infused by the recognizable power-pop vibe. His music vividly resembles the classic rock’n’roll sound of the seventies and eighties, highlighted with catchy pop twists and turns along the way. Lit carries loads of entertaining moments from scratch to finish, mainly achieved through semi-distorted chord progressions, moderate rhythmic segments, and ear-appealing lead vocals. You may stumble upon some female backing vocals that perfectly pairs with leads. The guitars are liberating generous portions of hypnotic melodies, harmonies, simplistic but effective guitar solos, catchy accentuations, and other guitar licks. The structure of these guitars maneuvers carries the spirit of the seventies and eighties rock music, but you may hear the resemblance with fifties surf-rock, twist, and power pop. Besides these old school rock’n’roll instrumentations, you may stumble upon contemporary indie pop-rock, mainly presented in the form of arrangements or outstanding production.

Maybe you’ll also notice some similarities with art-rock or seventies punk rock, but these explorations into more underground waters are perhaps unintentional. Each composition follows the primary direction of an album, and that’s unquestionably dynamic rock’n’roll performed with so much sense for balance between melodies and dynamics. Speaking of dynamics, the rhythm section emits moderate rhythmic acrobatics, decorated with constant splashing over the cymbals, drum fills, and other accentuations. Lit will be right up your alley if you’re into cheerful, singalongish, danceable, pop-oriented rock’n’roll anthems. This is an album for all generations, occasions, seasons, and moods. Lit is one of those albums that instantly gets under your skin and demands repetitious spinning after the first listening. Pennan Brae pushed the limits of the genre with Lit, but I also recommend you to check out his previous works, such as Shaded Joy, Amber Glow, Early Rise, Speechless – The Astronot, The Astronot, Gravity – The Astronot, and 2 Below 0. Lit is available at streaming services such as Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and YouTube. Head over to your preferred streaming service and support the terrific music by this Canadian artist.