Brett Smiley - Breathlessly Brett

RPM Records

Brett Smiley is one of the forgotten members of the early seventies glam rock scene whole only gained mild recognition in his lifetime with an appearance on the Russell Harty show singing his only song at the time, "Va Va Va Voom". While Smiley managed to record one solo album, manager Andrew Loog-Oldham refused to release it due to concerns that it would sell poorly. The album, "Breathlessly Brett", was released in 2003 on RPM records, and now we can finally decide if the wait was worth it or if it should've stayed in the vault. 

The first song on the album is a thirty-nine second long instrumental titled "Brett's Lullaby", and it sounds almost exactly the way you'd expect it to. It is a bright, poppy piano piece with a slightly unsettling, church organ-like tone, though it is unfortunately not a sign for things to come for the rest of this album. 

"Highty Tighty" has a good groove and a nice keyboard sound, but the horns are something the song could've done without. The genre typical, Chuck Berry riffs give the song a lovely glam sheen, as does Smiley's extremely effeminate, fey voice. While the song is quite enjoyable and danceable, the instrumental backing track was mixed poorly and is much louder then the vocal part, overpowering it and making it hard to discern what Smiley is saying. 

The third song on the album, "Space Ace", is very dramatic and includes an out of place cello part. There is a clear Bowie influence in the instrumentation, though Smiley's high voice does being to become annoying at times, which isn't at all helped by the uncomfortable lyrics which (as far as I can tell) might in part be about the woes of adolescence, going through puberty, and escapism. 

Next we have "April in Paris", one of the more interesting songs on the album. It has a nice groove aided by the noticeable bass part, Marc Bolan-esque guitar riffs and a vocal part more enjoyable then those on the previous songs, as you can tell Smiley had fun recording it. The lyrics have simple yet nice imagery and he song is one of the fun highlights of Smiley's practically nonexistent discography. 

Good things aren't meant to last forever, though. The follow up to "April in Paris" is the much slower ballad titled "Solitaire". Though the slide and acoustic guitars are pleasant, the lyrics of the song are annoyingly melodramatic, with emphasis on the mellow. While "Solitaire" is supposed to be a ballad, the song doesn't succeed at stirring many emotions, and it becomes too repetitive too fast. 

With a jumpy transition, the sixth song on the album and one of the early seventies hits for Smiley, "Va Va Va Voom", begins. Unlike with other glam rock albums of the time, all of the songs on this record are beginning to sound the same (and we're only halfway through). While this song is very commercial, with the silly lyrics, bland instrumentation and airy singing, I'm beginning to wonder how this song was ever a hit. It's camp as all hell, I'll give it that. 

"Run for the Sun" is another typical glam rock song, and is a bright, joyous, care free tune, making it much more enjoyable then the previous. The fun guitar complimented by the prominent bass line gives the song a good groove, but the lyrics are still rather silly and there simply isn't a whole lot to talk about with this song. 

Following "Run for the Sun" is a glitzed-up version of The Beatles' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". With the unnecessary addition of horns, among other things, this version of the song is musically all over the place, and sounds like it would've been a hit had it been released in the early '90s. Unfortunately, this is one of the dozens of examples of cover songs being worse then the originals, and the song gets boring two-thirds  of the way through. 

As a nice refresher after whatever we just heard was comes the rather interesting "Pre-Colombian Love", opening with strong drums and energetic guitar. While the song doesn't make much sense lyrically, the dramatic way Smiley sings the words makes up for it by giving it a veneer of seriousness, though he does at times sound like he's trying too much to be Marc Bolan. The bongo playing was also a little pointless and annoying to listen to. 

The next song on the album, "Queen of Hearts", begins with striking piano reminiscent of a movie's representation of a ballroom dance. The song is over-the-top in a fun way, and for the most part you can actually understand what Smiley is saying. While it does begin to mellow out and become a little repetitive as it goes on, the song still manages to remain enjoyable and puts the picture of a sunny day in your mind while Smiley declares that he is the queen of hearts. 

"I Can't Help Myself/Over the Rainbow" brings us into the final stretch of the album with a mainly harp introduction that could've been straight out of an old-time drama film before turning into fast paced, romping guitar with sugary string accompaniment. The song is simple in its lyrical content, with Smiley joyously going on about is love for an unnamed romantic partner, which very quickly becomes overly sweet and hard to continue listening to. Instrumentation wise, the song is similar to something you'd hear playing at a discotheque in the early '70s, spot on considering that's when the song was actually recorded. 

And finally, we have reached the end of "Breathlessly Brett" with a not-entirely-successful attempt at being poignant. "Young at Heart", though it starts off with some lovely piano, is far too melodramatic for what it is and sounds like it came out of a stage production for a cult-classic Broadway musical. The song features Smiley lamenting about the days of his youth, which is ironic considering that he was nineteen when this album was recorded. Apart from the nice backing vocals and the fact this song sounds like a half-hearted attempt to masquerade as Marc Bolan, there isn't anything else to say about the closer of this album. 

All and all, 'Breathlessly Brett" is the perfectly mediocre glam rock album. While there are hints of Bowie and Bolan throughout the songs mixed in with Smiley's own creativity, the album lacks the spark that made the former two, along with their contemporaries, so successful and unique. The high and low points of the album manage to even each other out in such a way that makes neither of them particularly memorable, and I can see why Andrew Loog-Oldham assumed this album wouldn't be a success. It is a shame that this, and a main role in an erotic musical-comedy version of Cinderella, are Brett Smiley's only claims to fame. Wasted potential. 

Rating: 3/5