PERSONNEL
All songs written and produced by Bright Kelly. Recorded and mixed at Red Tower Records (Bright’s Spare Room).
Bright Kelly—Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Piano, Percussion, Programming, Recording, Mixing, Mastering, Cover Art, Packaging, Photography
Melissa Kenney, Martin Savery—Backing Vocals (Track 1)
Avery Robin Kelly—misc. baby noises
Patreon Producers Club: Bill Friederich, Norah Shultz, Mark DiGiambattista, Damian Van Hart, Joe Maysky, Ben & Lilie Sugarman.
For Dearheart and Little Bird, forever and ever.
Flutter and Wow : A Review
by Dan May
You had me at hello.
“Barefoot sharks in a cigarette sea.” That first line of the new Bright Kelly record, Flutter and Wow, held enough promise and intrigue to let me know I’d still be around when I got to the end. Those words, delivered in a voice filled with richness and warmth, perfectly express the depth and breadth of the subjects he’s about to cover. And from that first line of the opening song till the last, the listener feels like they’re hearing the musical account of a scout sent out from the pack, alone, to gather information about what lies ahead.
And report back.
Ay Me (Unbrokenly), the first cut off the album is an anthemic work and my personal favorite. It is a song filled with uncertainty and self-reflection and shows the narrator to have the uncanny ability to not only recognize his own frailties, but to celebrate them. “And I hold myself, and I comfort me.”
Truth spoken by a voice that has been around and experienced enough life to know that consolation rarely comes from without—and most often from within.
In the Dark is one of those songs that feels like a little three-minute movie. Filled with troubled characters, complex and well-drawn.
Reborn […] provides the account of a birth—not the birth of a child, but the birth of that child’s father. A man that recognizes that his daughter’s coming into the world is as much a new beginning for him as it is for her. And it won’t be easy, but he’ll be there for the long run.
And that’s what matters.
While the Garden Burns is the lamentation of a solitary soul looking for the comradeship of like souls who’ve spent the same time in the same place. A limbo of the mind. And while although initially Nicotine sounds like a song about substance addiction, you find out quickly that its emotional addiction we’re talking about here. By someone who has no interest in breaking this addiction, but would rather breathe it in.
Even if it kills him.
Since I Weathered the Storm, with its infectious opening guitar riff, is a piece of ear candy to which you can hum the melody by the second chorus. That’s always a good sign of a memorable song. And when the singer says, “no one ever cured a faithless heart,” you don’t quite believe him. Because you know he’s going to give it a shot anyway.
Shake til the Fever is Gone is another gem. From its initial inhale, it opens the pages of a photo album and describes a few Polaroids of how life once was. An instructional on how to deal with life’s changes. A beautiful account of some snapshots in time.
When it’s Time feels like a melancholy mantra of a man trying to hold on to a relationship that is tenuously balancing on a high wire. Trying his best to move forward without tumbling down. And the ominous line, “when it’s time, you and I will go together,” with it’s almost threatening nature, isn’t lost on the listener.
Tough love in tough times.
I Will Raise Up has a gospel feel to it and as you listen, you keep waiting for the choir to join in at any moment. The song arrives on the album at the perfect time, just when you needed a little bit of faith to grab on to and hold tight.
I Wish You The Best is a true beauty in a Peter Gabriel vein that feels like it weighs a ton musically and yet the words and message are somehow light as a feather. What a wonderful combination.
Bright Kelly is an artist and writer of substance. Flutter and Wow is reflective, bold and unapologetic. And it’s filled with substantial compositions. His voice is something special, rich and warm, with a range that maintains it’s integrity whether reaching down in the low register or crying out in the high. This is the real deal. And in the song Ay Me, there is a line that speaks of self healing, “I don’t buy, I sell.” Another truth. And I’m here to say that this particular collection of words and music that he’s selling is worth a listen.
And then another.
Dan May is an award-winning singer-songwriter, author, and storyteller from Philadelphia.