Bronnie – High School Sucks

“Hold on. Something’s odd here.”

Tim: A few weeks back, you wrote of female rock soloists that “they’ll always get compared to either Avril Lavigne or Paramore, and it’s difficult for the sound to stand on its own”. Have a listen, and then take a guess where Bronnie, who has recently re-released this track, is from.

Tom: I disliked this based purely on the title, because it sounds like the sort of pandering-too-hard song that gets put into… I don’t know, maybe a knock-off not-Disney-channel teen movie? I’m going to guess she’s Swedish, and this is basically a localised attempt to do High School Musical.

Tim: Wrong – she’s from the Wirral, in north-west England, and I was amazed when I discovered that via her Twitter.

Tom: I also despise the Wirral. And… has she put a fake “Vevo” label on her own thumbnail? Hold on. Something’s odd here. I think she’s unsigned.

Tim: I believe so, yes, and the Wirral’s not that bad, is it? Neither’s this track, though, which is probably what we should be focussing on.

Tom: In which case, I feel a bit guilty being so bolshy about this, because for someone who’s doing pretty much all their own production, this sounds good. The vocals are a bit buried in the mix, and the video’s slightly amateur in how it’s filmed, but they’ve covered it well.

Tim: Couldn’t agree with you more about the vocals, and it seems neither could she – the re-released version is also a re-mastered version, which fixes that.

Tom: Without a huge budget behind it all, I’d expect a lot worse.

Tim: The main thing is what it sounds like, though, because I don’t know the reasoning behind a British person talking about semesters, sounding very, very American, but I can’t imagine it’s accidental. And it’s a shame, as it’s hard enough to stand out in a genre like this, but directly emulating the biggest artist? That surprises me.

Tom: On the other hand, we are talking about it.

Tim: Because it’s a great track – it wouldn’t shock me too much if Avril Lavigne had released this – but I’d love to hear it sounding more natural. Who knows what we could have had? Possibly a whole brand new sound.