“Tigers are great, they’re the toast of the town/ Yeah life’s so great when the tigers are around/ Tigers shouldn’t be locked up in the zoo/ Instead they should go downtown dancing with me and you.” That’s when the melodica kicks in on “A Song About Tigers (Revisited)”— my favorite nonsensical track off the lo-fi indie pop album by Swedish band All My Brother’s Girlfriends. The album’s title is Second Album on Cassette.
Swedish singer Pontus Tenggren took All My Brother’s Girlfriends as a moniker for his lo-fi recordings. On the out-of-date website that still exists for the band, the first piece of quoted italicized text reads: “I never thought anyone would ever listen to my music. That was never my intention either. But now that I know that people actually listen, I hope that I get a chance to put out records for people to rock-out and have a good time to!”(sp) This is the spirit of All My Brother’s Girlfriends’ music summed up succinctly.
Besides the wonderfully catchy tiger song mentioned above, “Sunscreen, Part 1” and “Sunscreen, Part 2” really come through in the melody department. Part 2 is offered first with a cheesy drum machine to go along with a toy piano. Yet the song’s “ba da da da da’s” still win me over every damn time. There’s clearly a nod to Beat Happening and the other lo-fi indie popsters posting up in that RIYL-Daniel Johnston camp.
Bookended by instrumentals, the first song is ironically titled “Spring Sing-A-Long.” Closer “Dagen Då Det Slutade Regna” translates to “The Day When It Stopped Raining” and sounds more like a sad rainy day song. Either way, that brings the subjects of the album to five: springtime, sunscreen, summer, tigers, rain. Simple, sweet, to the point. This album was probably really special to those who were lucky enough to have the original cassette. I am not one of those people but the CD makes me happy too.