Brandon Can’t Dance - Graveyard of Good Times

Brandon Can’t Dance, real name Brandon Ayres, is the latest in a line of self-produced, lo-fi singers coming out of Philadelphia. Alex G has dubbed him “the only applicable example of someone that I really admired,” and, like his contemporary, he has a vast collection of Bandcamp releases to bathe in.

Previous self-released records flit between lo-fi indie rock and something more electronic and dance-driven, and ‘Graveyard Of Good Times’, his first official full-length, has the same fidgety nature. In the first three tracks alone, Brandon careers from ‘Headspace”s amped-up indie rock, to ‘Smoke & Drive Around’’s punchy electro suited to the early hours, to the scrappy acoustic-led slacker rock of ‘A Greyhound Named Chelsea’.

It’s a trend that defines ‘Graveyard Of Good Times’, which tries everything across its sixteen tracks. ‘Where My Boys At’ borders on absurd but is at least consistently self-aware, as is the case throughout the record. It ought to be, when there’s song titles like ‘So Deep, So Tortured, So Freak’ to ‘Fuck Off and We’ll Get Along’.

‘Angelina’ is a highlight, treading the line between his pal Alex G and ’90s Modest Mouse, while ‘Me Inside Here’ is comparable to Arcade Fire’s most widescreen moments. It’s hard to truly believe in any of Brandon’s guises though, when they’re discarded like half-finished thoughts.

There’s an awful lot of promise housed in ‘Graveyard Of Good Times’, but its scale and constant shape-shifting makes it difficult to consume and process. Some refinement though, and the future’s bright for Brandon.