Brad
Interiors

THE REVIEW

Between “No Code” and “Yield” Stone Gossard, the true workhorse of the Vedder & Co. army, treats himself to another parallel discographic release. Three years later, he gathers the members of the Brad project and crosses the studio threshold between December '96 and January '97 in Seattle, whose gloomy and snowy sky (strangely) does not seem to inspire negative and nihilistic feelings.

“Interiors” includes a handful of pleasant and sunny tracks, almost carefree. A sort of spring revue for which Gossard cleans the grime of the debut “Shame” and seems to offer a pristine sound, almost too enticingly geared towards certain catchy and radio-friendly themes: it’s impossible not to notice this in “Secret Girl,” perfectly radio-friendly with an almost irritating chorus, “I Don’t Know” with its lilting rhythm, the successful formula of “The Day Brings” (the launch single), but already overused in previous and subsequent years, “Circles & Lines” incredibly catchy yet lacking punch, or in “Candles,” where Gossard mischievously shamelessly revives Pearl Jam. That’s not all; adding a bit of ballast to the otherwise lightly soaring album is the (not too) concentrated grime of “Funeral Song” and “Sweet Al George.”

The album fully reaches adequacy, but the content, too polished and lubricated, slips away and leaves no trace. It’s a pity, because the tracks “Upon my Shoulders,” “Those Three Words,” and “Some Never Come Home” incite the brain to act wildly and impulsively, to run to the record store next door or frantically find the PayPal password.