> Switch to Advanced Search

New & Current Releases
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
Best Of 2003
Best Of 2002
Best Of 2001
Best Of 2000
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Music In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

64 A Camp
78 Akron/Family
73 Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women
74 Amazing Baby
62 Tori Amos
54 The Answer
74 Anti-Flag
74 Art Brut
71 Au Revoir Simone
65 Zee Avi
70 Bachelorette
77 Bat For Lashes
68 Big Business
76 Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses
67 Black Dice
57 Black Eyed Peas
74 Black Moth Super Rainbow
71 Blank Dogs
65 Booker T.
54 The Boxmasters
65 The Boy Least Likely To
74 Brakes [aka brakesbrakesbrakes]
68 British Sea Power
66 Jeff Buckley
75 Busdriver
59 Busta Rhymes
64 Cage The Elephant
82 Bill Callahan
80 Camera Obscura
68 Cam'ron
79 Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
58 Chester French
82 The Church
61 Ciara
72 Clues
69 The Coathangers
74 Jarvis Cocker
90 Leonard Cohen
70 Elvis Costello
66 Graham Coxon
76 Crippled Black Phoenix
71 The Crocodiles
69 Cryptacize
71 Crystal Antlers
56 The Crystal Method
69 Dananananaykroyd
76 Danger Mouse And Sparklehorse
71 De La Soul
77 Death Cab For Cutie
68 Deer Tick
81 Deerhunter
70 Depeche Mode
78 Dinosaur Jr.
85 Dirty Projectors
86 DJ Quik & Kurupt
77 Doves
68 Dredg
76 Bob Dylan
82 Steve Earle
70 Eels
62 El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez
58 Eminem
60 Empire Of The Sun
54 The Enemy
67 Jeremy Enigk
68 Nathan Fake
85 The Felice Brothers
79 The Field
65 Fink
60 Fischerspooner
77 Flatlanders
62 Flo Rida
64 Franz Ferdinand
77 Gallows
72 Melody Gardot
59 Ginuwine
71 Golden Silvers
61 Gomez
69 Grand Duchy
73 Great Lake Swimmers
59 Great Northern
72 Green Day
86 Grizzly Bear
75 The Handsome Family
69 Ben Harper And Relentless7
75 PJ Harvey & John Parish
66 Heaven & Hell
85 Levon Helm
74 The Hold Steady
79 Patterson Hood
75 Jon Hopkins
82 The Horrors
69 Hanne Hukkelberg
74 Ida Maria
65 Immaculate Machine
75 The Intelligence
76 Iron & Wine
79 Isis
68 It Hugs Back
88 J Dilla aka Jay Dee
61 Jadakiss
86 Japandroids
61 Joan Of Arc
84 Joe Lovano Us Five
72 John Doe & The Sadies
70 Joker's Daughter
62 Jonas Brothers
53 Mike Jones
71 The Juan Maclean
76 Junior Boys
68 Kasabian
74 Diana Krall
56 Lady Sovereign
43 Ben Lee
68 The Lemonheads
76 Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard
77 Lindstrom & Prins Thomas
65 Little Boots
79 The Low Anthem
67 Jason Lytle
75 The Maccabees
76 Magik Markers
80 Major Lazer
70 Malajube
71 Manchester Orchestra
85 Manic Street Preachers
57 Marilyn Manson
66 The Mars Volta
68 Dave Matthews Band
62 Maximo Park
70 Meat Puppets
80 Method Man & Redman
77 Metric
75 Micachu & The Shapes
69 Chrisette Michele
76 Miike Snow
67 Mika Miko
75 Rhett Miller
49 Mims
72 Mr. Lif
72 Moby
78 Moderat
70 Mandy Moore
80 Mos Def
70 Bob Mould
74 Nadja
72 New York Dolls
72 Nite Jewel
67 NOFX
76 Noisettes
60 Paolo Nutini
67 Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band
74 Papercuts
76 Passion Pit
74 Peaches
71 Pet Shop Boys
68 Peter Bjorn And John
82 Phoenix
76 Pink Mountaintops
63 Placebo
66 Pomegranates
64 Iggy Pop
67 Prefuse 73
81 Ramblin' Jack Elliott
76 Rancid
54 Rascal Flatts
68 Lionel Richie
77 Alasdair Roberts
73 Rick Ross
55 Asher Roth
72 Savath & Savalas
61 Polly Scattergood
65 The Shortwave Set
60 Shout Out Out Out Out
66 Silversun Pickups
85 Todd Snider
78 Sonic Youth
72 The Soundcarriers
61 The Sounds
74 Regina Spektor
63 Spinal Tap
65 Spinnerette
81 St. Vincent
59 Still Flyin'
58 Street Sweeper Social Club
87 Sunn O)))
82 Sunset Rubdown
84 Super Furry Animals
74 Richard Swift
78 Taking Back Sunday
85 Tanya Morgan
81 Otis Taylor
71 Telekinesis
70 Telepathe
80 Thee Oh Sees
79 The Thermals
74 Rob Thomas
64 Thunderheist
74 Tiga
57 Tinted Windows
72 Tortoise
82 Allen Toussaint
71 Trembling Bells
69 Two Fingers
84 UGK
68 Keith Urban
71 John Vanderslice
85 The Vaselines
74 The Veils
73 Viva Voce
63 Patrick Watson
79 White Denim
77 White Rabbits
57 The Whitest Boy Alive
74 Wilco
80 Wildbirds & Peacedrums
78 Wolves In The Throne Room
65 The Wooden Birds
67 Wooden Shjips
81 Yeah Yeah Yeahs
70 Pete Yorn
93 Neil Young
60 Neil Young
72 Yusuf

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Give Blood
by Brakes [aka brakesbrakesbrakes]


8.1

based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

MUSIC:

Brakes is an often-jokey, garage-rock side project for British Sea Power keyboardist Eamon Hamilton, who here steps to the forefront, playing guitar and handling lead vocals. Joining him are members of Electric Soft Parade and Tenderfoot on 16 tracks that range from six seconds to 3:39 in length.

LABEL:	Rough Trade
RELEASE DATE:	13 September 2005
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Indie, Rock

NOTES: Original UK release 4 Jul 2005.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Village Voice (Consumer Guide)

Some observers classify these ditties "country-punk," while other crankily insist they're "anti-folk," proving mainly that nobody knows what to make of simple little guitar-band songs on a scene where everyone's busy refining his or her artistic vision.

Spin

They blaze with scene-satiric brilliance. [Sep 2005, p.109]

Tiny Mix Tapes

An über-catchy collection of short, diverse songs laden with a playfully channeled anger and wit that are hard to forget.

Uncut

Brakes sound like The Jesus & Mary Chain with Tourette's. [Aug 2005, p.102]

Dot Music

You can't help feeling that, with a little less self-indulgence and a bit more camp brilliance, Brakes could be the side project that turned into something special.

New Musical Express

Full of fraught, frivolous fun. [11 Jun 2005, p.67]

Playlouder

One of the most witty, ambitious and intelligent British guitar albums thus far in 2005.

Blender

Stupid-brilliant punk rock. [Dec 2005, p.147]

Alternative Press

Thankfully, the electro-bleeped post-punk "All Night Disco Party" and buzz-band piss-take "Heard About Your Band" aren't just dead-on scenester satire; they're damned entertaining too. [Jan 2006, p.142]

Pitchfork

Give Blood falls squarely in the "pleasant surprise" camp; a gift to short attention spans everywhere.

cokemachineglow

It’s hard to tell if this disc will have much in the way of staying power... but it’s a hell of a fun listen.

Under The Radar

Genuinely funny. [#11, p.114]

Q Magazine

Lunacy has seldom sounded more exhilarating. [Aug 2005, p.126]

Splendid

The music is comfortable, lacking the self-conscious over-rehearsed feeling of other new bands.

Mojo

Brakes give the likeable impression of being a jokey jamming session at a party that got out of hand. [Aug 2005, p.98]

musicOMH.com

Weird and wonderful in roughly equal measure.

Neumu.net

When they play, they sound confident and sloppy. When they sing, they sound sincere and sarcastic. They crunch and slash like early punk, toy with country like The Mekons, and use chiming melodies like indie rock. And all fastened together by a combination of mockery and carelessness, they come out with something that could easily stand up against any of the favorite rock 'n' roll records you turn to for a good time.

PopMatters

Humorous without being ridiculous, fun without being jubilant; Give Blood is a fundamental fluke of focus and wisdom.

Stylus Magazine

This is indie in the most traditional sense.

Lost At Sea

This style of mock-rock doesn’t have a long shelf life, as the songs cease to be funny and hipsters will inevitably find a new way to offhandedly make fun of/glorify themselves.

Junkmedia

Much of the record lands solidly in novelty territory.

Prefix Magazine

The lack of musical coherence here is jarring and irritating.

Dusted Magazine

If you took away the melodica, the masks and the mystery of a band like Clinic, you’d be left with a Brakes; competent, middle-of-the-road, going nowhere fast.

The average user rating for this album is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Max J gave it a10:
Outstanding

J C gave it a4:
I saw the Brakes live at Mean Fiddler the other night and to be honest I found it quite bad. As far as melodies go, it's not mediocre, but there's really nothing exciting about it. However, the lead singer should really take up singing lessons, and I'm not even sure that would be enough to overcome his appalling singing capabilities. It's like hearing Arcade Fire gone horribly wrong. Definitely hear it before you decide to buy it!

Robbin L gave it a7:
Primarily rewarding, if not silly. The catchiness is undeniable on some, and some seem just plain amateur. The nod to the JAMC is a pleasant gesture, but Ms. Sandoval has got nothing to fear. Overall, I would compare it to an average episode of Night Court. A decent portion of Dan and Harry with just a little Bull.

ted l gave it an8:
The one bad review I've seen of Brakes was likely written by a members of a band/scene skewered on GIVE BLOOD. This is a collection of brief, abrasive pop songs that provide anecdotal commentary -- nothing too deep, but generally spot-on observations that are not often noted. I could do with a little less twang on the next one, to which I am looking forward.

Vander V gave it a9:
It´s very funny and much better than the last British Sea Power album. It was recorded in 5 days!!!

Discuss this album in our forums

Return to top of page

Give Blood by Brakes [aka brakesbrakesbrakes]

Give Blood
by Brakes [aka brakesbrakesbrakes]