Brian Bringelson is actually better known as the solo artist Paul Starling, as well as for the efforts he has released with his Ventura, Calif.-based band Anchor & Bear. But on Burning Backwards, the singer, songwriter and multi-faceted instrumentalist employed his birth name. This album was recorded a couple of years ago and has now been issued by Kool Kat Musik.
Bringelson’s warm and expressive vocals, fused with meticulously chiseled arrangements, colors the material on Burning Backwards with ear-tickling revelations set in the spirit of acts such as the Beach Boys, Bread, the Smithereens and Matthew Sweet.
Basking in the glow of silky textures and jazzy blue-eyed soul currents, “Goodbye Only Seems to Start Again” opens the album in royal order, duly whetting the appetite for the following tracks.
Plucky surf-rock rhythms intersect nicely with flickers of country twang and rounds of handclaps on “Colorado Fever Dreams,” where “Something Wicked” gets the ball rolling to a gnawing groove before morphing into a spine-tingling show of angelic choral pop.
Energized by a team of gleaming hooks and lively harmonies, “Talking Shadows” wraps things up with a pinch of psychedelic reverberation, and the stunningly beautiful “Shot in the Dark” glides seamlessly to a hypnotic wash of heart-tugging vocals and soft and shimmery melodies.
Locked tight with whistle-worthy wonders, Burning Backwards sails in as a piece of pop-rock perfection. Brian Bringelson’s talent for putting together songs producing a positive impact on first listen is indeed impressive.
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