{"id":77711,"date":"2019-04-04T14:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=77711"},"modified":"2023-04-07T14:23:38","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T13:23:38","slug":"review-brightr-two-sides-ep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Brightr &#8211; Two Sides EP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-77712\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/coverart-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Brightr\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" title=\"\">Laurie Cottingham, aka <b>Brightr<\/b>, is not one to hold back his emotions. 2016&#8217;s debut full-length outing, <i>&#8216;Year One&#8217;<\/i>, rode on a wave of lyrical rawness, complimented by warm, stripped back acoustics. Following its release, Cottingham found himself in a good place yet when it came to writing new material, he felt pressured to deliver something on par.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, having been through a period of uncertainty, Laurie has now returned with the <em>&#8216;Two Sides&#8217;<\/em> EP. It sees him serve up six offerings of &#8220;gloomy emo-pop&#8221;. Collectively, it&#8217;s an EP threaded together by Cottingham&#8217;s cathartic words.<\/p>\n<p>From the outset,<em> &#8216;New Years&#8217;<\/em> allows you into his mindset as he gives an account of a strained relationship. Complimented by delicate acoustic flickery, he sings with admittance;\u00a0<em>&#8220;I\u2019m a <\/em>curse<em>, we\u2019re breaking up&#8221;<\/em> yet with sweeping keys, he&#8217;s considerate. It&#8217;s a comfortable and pleasing opening.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Brightr - &quot;Mark Strong&quot; Official Music Video\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1Wa8GfgQnHc?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The sense of hopefulness is a trait that pops up throughout. <em>&#8216;Mark Strong&#8217;<\/em> radiantly confides in feeling out of place and wanting to be elsewhere yet Laurie shows a willingness to try. Likewise, <em>&#8216;Jerk&#8217;<\/em> sees him sing about his self-doubt and facing up to growing old, yet is compliant to<em> &#8220;make something of it&#8221;<\/em>. If you look beyond Cottingham&#8217;s acoustic charm, you will find a set of relatable and sincere songs.<\/p>\n<p>After the brief twinkling of <em>&#8216;Vs&#8217;<\/em> and its take on reluctancy to leave the house, <em>&#8216;Bleach Sour&#8217;<\/em> strides with forthright lyricism as Laurie admits to being <em>&#8220;afraid of everything I do&#8221;.\u00a0<\/em>When paired with the closing number, <em>&#8216;Bergerac&#8217;,<\/em> it amplifies Cottingham&#8217;s honesty as he refuses to accept happiness and constantly questions it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brightr<\/strong>&#8216;s ability to compliment his cathartic tales with stripped back acoustic guitars, allows you to hone in on his words. It makes for a wholesome EP that is easy to repeatedly digest. While admittedly it&#8217;s &#8220;sadder&#8221; and more reigned in than its predecessor, <em>&#8216;Two Sides&#8217;<\/em> is a shining snapshot of Cottingham&#8217;s effective and underrated songwriting.<\/p>\n<p>3.5\/5<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Two Sides&#8217;<\/i> EP by <b>Brightr<\/b> is released on 5th April on <strong>No Reason Records<\/strong> \/ <strong>Penultimate Records<\/strong> \/ <strong>Lockjaw Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Brightr<\/b> links: <a href=\"https:\/\/iambrightr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iambrightr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/brightrmusic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thisisbrightr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by S\u00eaan Reid (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SeanReid86\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@SeanReid86<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;&#8216;Two Sides&#8217; is a shining snapshot of Laurie Cottingham&#8217;s effective and underrated songwriting&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2269],"tags":[2641,1364,3599,1522,16794],"class_list":["post-77711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-ep-review","tag-brightr","tag-lockjaw-records","tag-no-reason-records","tag-penultimate-records","tag-two-sides-ep"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Brightr - Two Sides EP - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;&#039;Two Sides&#039; is a shining snapshot of Laurie Cottingham&#039;s effective and underrated songwriting&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Brightr - Two Sides EP - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;&#039;Two Sides&#039; is a shining snapshot of Laurie Cottingham&#039;s effective and underrated songwriting&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/seanreidportfolio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-04T13:00:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-07T13:23:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/coverart-e1553865930916.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"S\u00eaan Reid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"S\u00eaan Reid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Review: Brightr - Two Sides EP - Already Heard Staging","description":"\"'Two Sides' is a shining snapshot of Laurie Cottingham's effective and underrated songwriting\"","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Review: Brightr - Two Sides EP - Already Heard Staging","og_description":"\"'Two Sides' is a shining snapshot of Laurie Cottingham's effective and underrated songwriting\"","og_url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/","og_site_name":"Already Heard Staging","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/seanreidportfolio","article_published_time":"2019-04-04T13:00:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-04-07T13:23:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":1000,"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/coverart-e1553865930916.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"S\u00eaan Reid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_site":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"S\u00eaan Reid","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/"},"author":{"name":"S\u00eaan Reid","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/484dc00e54dea89663d06cb624a70cd9"},"headline":"Review: Brightr &#8211; Two Sides EP","datePublished":"2019-04-04T13:00:21+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-07T13:23:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/"},"wordCount":370,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/coverart-e1553865930916.jpg","keywords":["Brightr","Lockjaw Records","No Reason Records","Penultimate Records","Two Sides EP"],"articleSection":["Album Reviews","EP Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/","name":"Review: Brightr - Two Sides EP - Already Heard Staging","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/coverart-e1553865930916.jpg","datePublished":"2019-04-04T13:00:21+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-07T13:23:38+00:00","description":"\"'Two Sides' is a shining snapshot of Laurie Cottingham's effective and underrated songwriting\"","inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-brightr-two-sides-ep\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/coverart-e1553865930916.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/coverart-e1553865930916.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"caption":"Brightr"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","name":"Already Heard Staging","description":"Covering the best in alternative music as best as we can","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization","name":"Already Heard","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Already Heard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","https:\/\/x.com\/alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alreadyheard\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/already-heard\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AlreadyHeardMusic","https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@alreadyheard"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/484dc00e54dea89663d06cb624a70cd9","name":"S\u00eaan Reid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef81976bb8e011af71a662b656189e99562e2fa47bb3928dfb824b97e133334e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef81976bb8e011af71a662b656189e99562e2fa47bb3928dfb824b97e133334e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef81976bb8e011af71a662b656189e99562e2fa47bb3928dfb824b97e133334e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"S\u00eaan Reid"},"description":"Based in Nottinghamshire, S\u00eaan Reid is the Founder and Senior Editor of Already Heard. Since 2008, he has been writing about a variety of bands from around the world for numerous publications. Away from music, S\u00eaan has several interests, most notably watching wrestling and football. You can find S\u00eaan on the following: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram","sameAs":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/seanreidportfolio","seanreid86"],"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/author\/sean\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77723,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77711\/revisions\/77723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}