The Brillboard is a curated list of fresh, new tracks by independent and up-and-coming artists. Tracks on the Brillboard fit a mood – sometimes broad, sometimes very specific, always useful to you. Follow for the soundtrack to your life, by artists you wish you knew.
This week’s Brillboard focuses on relationships.
follow The Brillboard on Spotify
We open with the Honeymoon Phase. “Can’t Get Enough” by Dream Chief and “Weakness” by Frills. These songs are delectably upbeat. Their electric pop captures the enticing start of a relationship. Star-struck or struck by lightning, a budding romance is typically a lighthearted time filled with the ravenous desire to spend as much time together as possible. To put it simply, you can’t get enough.
The next three songs – by Talos, Slenderbodies, Nathan Bell respectively – speak to the depth of a developing relationship. They all focus on how we help each other grow, how we help each other change, and how we keep each other and each other’s mental health in check. We’re open, vulnerable, and trust each other.
We could stop now and it would be a great playlist, but if none of these songs fit your current romantic situation, keep listening; these next tracks might be for you. After Henry Jamison‘s ethereal Call Me By Your Name-esq interlude, we start to see a turn for the worse. Lines of communication are dying in Godwin‘s “I Know” and TENDER‘s “Can’t Show My Face”, and we’re not who we once were. In all likelihood, it’s the beginning of the end.
Closing out the Brillboard is “Portrait of a Female” by Cruel Youth. It doesn’t really fit any of these stages; like “Hatefuck” (one of the first Cruel Youth songs I heard), perhaps it belongs in a miscellaneous pile – or a soundtrack for 50 Shades of Grey.
— —
