Album: The Brothers Martin
Artist: The Brothers Martin
Label: Tooth and Nail
Sounds like: New Order meets Franz Ferdinand

It makes so much sense you wonder why nobody thought of it earlier: Jason Martin, driving force behind Starflyer 59, and his brother Ronnie from electropop project Joy Electric teaming up and spurring each other on to make this great CD. Jason Martin has utilised electronic sounds on more recent SF59 albums, as well as with Bon Voyage, his collaboration with Julie Martin, so the sound on The Brothers Martin is not completely new. But the early Madonna and New Order feel of Ronnie’s retro electro-pop adds levity to Jason’s music, while the shoegazer and surf guitar adds melancholy highlights and depth to Ronnie’s. The only negative is that they only wrote one song together (otherwise they alternate songwriting credits). But it’s a small negative.

Nicks rating: 4/5