Chris Brokaw is the consummate underground rock musician. In a career spanning thirty-plus years he has been in countless bands (Come, Codeine, Charnel Ground, The Lemonheads, to name a few) has been a sideman with everyone from Thurston Moore to GG Allin, pounded countless stages on nonstop tours, and played on over seventy recordings, including lp's, ep's, cassettes and soundtracks. 'Puritan' is his tenth solo lp and it's a killer.
From the hypnotic repetition on the extended instrumental outro of title-track opener "Puritan", the wounded grace of "Depending", to the fragile beauty of the Velvets-esque duet with Claudia Groom, "I'm the Only One for You",, and the ghost of Alex Chilton echoing through "The Bragging Rights", onto the GBV-like firestorm of 'Periscope Kids', and ending with the 'On The Beach'-era Neil Young minimal strum of his cover of the late Karl Hendricks' "The Night Has No Eyes", Brokaw has crafted an understated masterpiece. Puritan is an album that is all heartache and rebirth, resignation and joy, the kind of record that is so needed but all too rare these days. A classic from front to back.
