Track By Track: The Brook & The Bluff Break Down Debut Album First Place

The Brook & The Bluff is a band full of soulful indie rockers who exude all the warmth of the brilliant Birmingham sunshine.

Now based in Nashville, together the Alabama natives channel the energy of bands like Rex Orange County and Hippo Campus through their expressive vocal harmonies and easy going melodies.

On Friday, October 25, The Brook & The Bluff released their debut album First Place, a collection not only inspired by the summer days they spent growing up in Birmingham but also focused on an overseas relationship and the heartbreak that came with it. The band’s lead vocalist Joseph Settine broke the album down track by track for Musical Notes Global readers. Check out his thoughts below.

“First Place” is about a time in one of my relationships where I felt like I was never very important to the other person, and I felt ignored. I needed some attention, and felt none.

“Shelby” is about the feeling you have during a text message conversation/argument, when all you want is to call them instead, but you realize if you were to call then you wouldn’t have anything to say. It’s about constant over-analyzation.

“Everything is Just a Mess” is about just that. Everything being a mess, but still looking down at what’s there and knowing that sometimes a mess can be beautiful.

“Halfway Up” is about a specific reflection I had in a hike in Hallstatt, Austria. I quit halfway up the mountain, and it turned out to be a strange metaphor for my effort in my relationship at the time.

“Off the Lawn” is an immediate reaction to unwillingly breaking off a relationship, and all of the feelings that rush your brain in the aftermath, most of all the simultaneous need to start over and the need for the one you just lost.

“Pastels” is a two sided song, the first side is an apology of sorts - for feeling like I painted someone into a box that could not contain them, for shortchanging someone’s dreams. The second side is a memory of walking through the pastel fronted buildings in Prague and only recalling how happy I was with the person walking beside me.

“Hallways” is a song about longing to be careless around a lot of self-inflicted rigidity. It is about only wanting to hear one thing from your person, and feeling complete when you do.

“I Could Never Draw” is kind of an extension of feeling as though I had painted an incomplete picture of someone. And knowing how unfair it is to have done that. I am a horrible visual artist, I can’t draw to save my life.

“Father Mckenzie” is my version of a story about love that was unrequited, through the eyes of Father Mckenzie. The priest and Eleanor had spent most of their lives lonely until they found one another - but they could never break their promises to a higher power, something that filled the priest with regret. I wrote this song to reflect a time in my life and relationship where I wanted the other person to know that I didn’t think there was any promise more important than those we made to each other.

The Brook & The Bluff are currently touring the U.S. Dates below.

11/1: Denver, CO @ Lost Lake Lounge
11/3: Salt Lake City, UT @ State Room
11/5: Seattle, WA @ Columbia City Theater
11/6: Portland, OR @ Holocene
11/8: San Francisco, CA @ Hotel Utah
11/9: Santa Cruz, CA @ The Atrium
11/14: Los Angeles, CA @ Hotel Cafe
11/15: San Diego, CA @ Voodoo Room (House of Blues)
11/16: Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
11/23: Memphis, TN @ Growlers
11/27: Birmingham, AL @ Iron City

Listen to First Place now on Spotify.