Bricklin – Bricklin

From Philadelphia and formed around the brother Scott and Brian, the Bricklin team manage to come up with an appealing album of songs that skirt round the fringes of bands like Agent, Life By Night, The City and Mr Mister.

Written by: gdmonline

ARTIST: Bricklin
ALBUM: Bricklin
LABEL: A&M
SERIAL: SP 5124 (LP), CD 5124 (CD)
YEAR: 1986
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

LINEUP: Scott Bricklin – vocals, guitars, keyboards, percussion * Jake Meyer – vocals, keyboards, percussion * Brian Bricklin – guitars, keyboards, vocals * Ian Cross – guitar, keyboards, vocals * Jamie Goetz – bass, vocals * Eddie Bader – drums

TRACK LISTING: 01 Fear Of Life * 02 For Her Love * 03 Even When You’re Done With Me * 04 All I Know * 05 Love Without Pain * 06 If This Is Love * 07 All You Own * 08 She’s Not My Girl * 09 How Come I? * 10 The Sleeping Dream

WEBLINKS: Site Link

Background

Goodness, there’s so many keyboardists on show here, have they got enough room on stage for all these guys! All joking aside, if you like your rock music on the softer side, with the occasional flex of muscle, then Bricklin might just be up your alley.

From Philadelphia and formed around the brother Scott and Brian, the Bricklin team manage to come up with an appealing album of songs that skirt round the fringes of bands like Agent, Life By Night, The City, and Mr Mister.

Lots of hi-tech arrangements, keyboards and percussive elements too. This album was ignored by the mainstream press at the time, passed off as faceless commercial rock. Perhaps so, but there’s more depth here than some of the other bands that were lauded at the time.

The fact that A&M did ‘diddly squat’ to promote the album only compounded matters. Producer Neil Dorfsman puts together a mixed package. And that in itself is a problem, as the music does tend to ebb and flow between tracks.

The Songs

The opener ‘Fear Of Life’ is a bright and breezy opener, with a fast paced attack and lots of chanty choruses, while the next ‘For Her Love’ tries hard to continue the same approach.

‘Even When You’re Done With Me’ is an upbeat dance oriented track, something a band like Haywire could get away with.

‘All I Know’ sounds like The Arrows, though the bass lines are very funky and very good, the whole thing drenched in synths.If This Is Love’ also moves in that same direction. The ballad ‘All You Own’ is delicate to the point of exquisite, and meanders through in softer fashion.

As too does ‘She’s Not My Girl’ which has a nice strutty guitar line, and is probably the best example of AOR that Bricklin do, and it’s rather impressive!

The closer ‘The Sleeping Dream’ is another great slice of mid paced rock like Glass Tiger. This has an infectious chorus and a distinctive brass parp through the middle of it. Great stuff for all us mellow rockers.

In Summary

You used to see this quite often on vinyl, but now it commands some sort of respect as a hard to find CD. So, for all you boundary riders out there, start looking for that elusive second album, which just about got an official release from A&M but didn’t.

In fact, much of Bricklin”s subsequent material found it’s way onto a series of unofficial recordings during the 2011-2018 period. There were 3 volumes if I recall. I think these are lying around in my collection somewhere, need to check.

Some of the guys reformed for the Martins Dam album ‘The Healing’ from 1995. A very stripped down and earthy piece of music, getting back to the roots of heartland US rock.

Bricklin on Video

All I Know