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jshambley

Viva Brother - 'Famous First Words'

Updated: Dec 4, 2020


Album: Famous First Words

Artist: Viva Brother

Release Date: August 1, 2011

Genre: British rock/pop

Length: 0:34:16

Label: Geffen Records

Producer: Stephen Street



A perfect album to represent 2020 even though it was created in 2011...

The debut record of English band Viva Brother's, Famous First Words was recorded by famous producer Stephen Street who recorded albums for Blur and The Smiths to name a few. Receiving horrible reviews at release, this album is regarded as one of the first Britpop revival records in the 2010s.


Obviously inspired by acts like Oasis, the ideas Viva Brother brought to the album are simply mimicking acts that achieved critical acclaim and their execution is horrendous. The initial track "New Year's Day" has so many different things happening that together it sounds sloppy. The lead singer has a horribly similar voice to Oasis and during the chorus he struggles to stay on key. The amount of different sounds throughout the song overwhelms the ears to the point of insanity. Even though they are trying to mimic famous groups in Britpop, they fail to come close.


It may just be the initial track, right? Maybe it was a swing and miss? Wrong! The rest of the record is more of the same. The uninteresting ideas, boring sound, and imposter vibes continue to make every song laughable. The track "David" showcases the forced singing from the lead singer, and a sad excuse for musicianship. The song does have a nice drum fill but is quickly ruined with a random vibraslap sound that unfortunately, for them, doesn't fit in with the song at all.

Each track has simplistic instrumentation throughout the average three minute length. There is nothing exciting about any song, and each song seems like it could've been written by a middle school group for the end of the year talent show. One hilarious feature within most of the songs is the use of background accompaniment. The song "High Street Low Lives" shows this perfectly with the "ooooos" after each line of the verse. It's laughable how serious the lead singer is while the chaotic noise is happening right behind him.


The only song that could arguably be considered "decent" is the sixth song "Darling Buds Of May". While this song is still far from great, the difference between the other songs is drastic. This song actually features musical ideas and the vibe throughout is all there with no conflicting opinions. The guitar solo in the middle is a nice touch that shows that the band slightly knows how to play their instruments but it still doesn't bring an exciting sound to anything.


Some songs are simply comedic such as "Otherside". The hilarity from the vocal performance is amazing and could easily be seen as a joke. If the album was made as a joke, this is a fantastic record, but it seems like Viva Brother wanted this to be a record that revived a dying genre. In doing this, they only dug Britpop further into the grave.


Every song sounds similar to everything else on the record. The transition from "Fly By Nights" to the next track "False Alarm" is so similar that it sounds almost as if it's one long song. The differences song-to-song are so miniscule that it's possible to feel as though this is a thirty-four minute song with various breaks in between.

The discomfort emitting from the entire record is the only reason I could ever recommend listening to it. If you want to experience something awful because you've only been listening to overall decent records, this is a great album to pull you back down to Earth. Do yourself a favor and thank me since I listened to this entire album so that you wouldn't have, and now I have a headache. Oh the things I do for this project (worth it though)…



Favorite Songs: No favorites

Least Favorite Songs: The entire album


Production Quality:

  • Mix = 4.5/10 (While the actual mix isn't bad overall, there are a lot of points you get overwhelmed by the amount of sound)

  • Innovation = 0/10 (Copy-cat)

Songwriting Quality:

  • Arrangement = 2/10

  • Lyricism = 2/10 (Original non-catchy lyrics)

Instrumentation Quality:

  • Vocal Timbre = 4/10 (Points his voice doesn't sound awful)

  • Instrumental Timbre = 4/10 (Nothing exciting or different but not horrible)

  • Group Chemistry = 3/10 (At least they play together)

Overall Likability:

  • My Personal Rating = 1/10

Overall Rating: 2.6/10


Any confusion on how the rating is weighted/calculated, please look at my "About" page.

Remember this is all my opinion! Let me know if you agree, disagree or have any comments!

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