After a forgettable first album to review on 10Listens, I was anxiously looking for something to cleanse my musical pallet.  Something consistent and enjoyable enough to make me forget the back-and-forth that dominated my last reviewing experience.  Ted Leo and The Pharmacist’s latest effort, their sixth full length album as a group, was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Some might say that Ted Leo’s sticking with the same general technique throughout his career represents an inability to evolve as a musical artist. He can very easily be written off as “always sounding the same” and “unmemorable.” These antagonistic people have nothing but my unmitigated scorn. In truth, this new album, Brutalist Bricks, is an accomplishment because of the fact that it’s Ted Leo playing a game he knows how to play very well. Brutalist Bricks is self-contained, and it certainly  doesn’t overreach to try to be something that it actually isn’t.  Unoriginal? Maybe. But it’s entertaining and fun. Even if  the vast majority of the album does sound like other Ted Leo efforts, why would this be a bad thing?

If pressed to respond using only two words, I would go with “playful” and “energetic” to describe the album. I really can’t think of two better terms. I cannot help but feel that the now-pushing-forty Ted Leo had an immense amount of fun putting this together. From the very first track, entitled “The Mighty Sparrow,” Ted Leo’s guitar is leaping out of the speakers with an immeasurable energy and pace, backed by steady drumming replete with more than enough cymbal play to maintain the overall mantra of the track. This song sets the tempo for the whole album, which rarely deviates from the fast-paced scheme.  If anything, most of the album seems to be an exploration by the group to see how fast they can go before they’re forced to stop to take a breath, a stylistic decision that makes the more mellow, thoughtful guitar play by Leo shine through in moments where the tempo is lessened and the vocals are given pause.

Brutalist Bricks really hits its stride in tracks three through seven. The first of these, “Ativan Eyes,” might be my favorite on the whole album.  The song is quite chorus-driven, accentuated by echoing from backing vocals that highlight perhaps the best guitar sound on the record. I use the term “playful” above, and this song is the epitome of it on this album from a guitar perspective, as Ted Leo ventures from the bold  sound that made “Me and Mia” so awesome, to an almost whisper-like string picking with no vocals to end the track, all while Leo asserts that he “wants your eyes here” because he is “so sick of cynics” and “wants something to trust in.”  I easily exceeded the requisite ten listens on this particular track, and I can see myself coming back to it in the future.

Another instance of the “playful” quality of this album can be seen at the 2:40 mark of the second track, “Mourning In America.” Here Leo employs what I can best describe as “the airhorn sound effect from that Drake song.” It’s out of place in a Ted Leo song,  assuredly, but so out of place that it works perfectly to achieve a unique sound and level of humor not often seen.  Well done indeed.  The song “Tuberculoids Arrive In Hop” is the only song that can be seen as a radical departure from the others.  Driven by hauntingly simple acoustic guitar, only a few notes dominate the majority of the song. Ted Leo shows no lack of ingenuity here as he pairs moments where he sings like Phil Collins with the occasional helium-high falsetto.  At least, for a brief song before we explode back into the typical sound of the album with “Gimme the Wire.”

This album is a far cry from “best album ever,” but it is fun and extremely enjoyable as a result. With Brutal Bricks you have forty-one, awesome, energetic minutes that will be over before you even know it.