After releasing one of 2018’s best albums in A Laughing Death In Meatspace, Tropical Fuckstorm, the Australian outfit made up of former members of the Drones drop a quick follow-up. Sadly, it doesn’t quite have the magic the debut did.
The same humorous and often brilliant lyrics, half-spoken on top of screeching guitars, erratic bursts of drums, and jagged-edged rhythms exist here, but the more melodic side of the debut is replaced by a lot more experimental and often meandering atonal guitar parts.
It struggles to lift off in quite the same seamless way as its predecessor; it’s harder work, but that hard work doesn’t often pay off. Braindrops is a stranger, more awkward record that at times captures the manic energy of a band like Deerhoof, but sometimes its fidgety mania can be to its own detriment.
6/10
Daniel Dylan Wray