Brandon Wolfe Scott makes pure bitterness and raw heartache sound gorgeous on The Postcard Writer, his debut solo EP. "I don't want to shake your hand and pretend we're friends for much longer," he sings, in gentle agony, on the standout track "Anymore." Scott's strumming is as whispery as his voice on that tune and fiddles intermittently groan like old oaks in a frigid winter breeze, while a sparse electric guitar riff gingerly lifts the proceedings to a climax.
"Heartless," meanwhile, features an even harsher refrain: "I bet your heart beats in a steady line, as it preys upon the weakest kind." But instead of being sung in a sneer that matches the sentiment, the tune is once again imbued with Scott's penchant for melancholy. He sings about perpetual aching on "All That I've Done," moaning the chorus over piano notes that plink like fallen tears; even the title track's far jauntier tone is underpinned by the narrator's longing for the lover that he sends postcards to while globetrotting.
All that sweet sadness is a stark departure from the more amiable and upbeat songs that Scott plays in his main outlet, Yukon Blonde. Postcard is also much folkier than that troop's recent string of indie rock releases, or even its Levon Helm-indebted eponymous 2010 breakthrough.
While cohort Jeff Innes is widely regarded as Blonde's chief songwriter, Scott's rootsier and rawer tunes on Postcard will leave fans hoping that he has much more input on the band's next LP.
(Nevado)"Heartless," meanwhile, features an even harsher refrain: "I bet your heart beats in a steady line, as it preys upon the weakest kind." But instead of being sung in a sneer that matches the sentiment, the tune is once again imbued with Scott's penchant for melancholy. He sings about perpetual aching on "All That I've Done," moaning the chorus over piano notes that plink like fallen tears; even the title track's far jauntier tone is underpinned by the narrator's longing for the lover that he sends postcards to while globetrotting.
All that sweet sadness is a stark departure from the more amiable and upbeat songs that Scott plays in his main outlet, Yukon Blonde. Postcard is also much folkier than that troop's recent string of indie rock releases, or even its Levon Helm-indebted eponymous 2010 breakthrough.
While cohort Jeff Innes is widely regarded as Blonde's chief songwriter, Scott's rootsier and rawer tunes on Postcard will leave fans hoping that he has much more input on the band's next LP.