Photo from balu-brigada.com

REVIEW by Hannah Corbett, Staff Writer

ROCKLAND- I saw Balu Brigada in September of 2024 when they opened for twenty øne piløts on their Clancy tour. I had never heard of them before, but after the show I ended up falling in love with their music. The release of this album has only solidified my love for what they create.

Balu Brigada is an indie rock band from Auckland, New Zealand. The band is made up of two brothers, Pierre and Henry Beasley. Portal is the band’s debut album, though they have released two EPs,  I Should Be Home, Find A Way, and a compilation titled Balu. Portal was released on August 29.

RHS sophomore Talia Costa said that she enjoyed the album because it reminded her of music that she had listened to before.

Costa said, “My favorite song on the album was either ‘4:25’ or ‘So Cold’ … I think they stood out to me because … ‘4:25’ had vibes of other songs that I like listening to. And ‘So Cold’, I think I just liked the lyrics of the song.”

My favorite song on the album was “Sideways”. It blends pop and alternative music in a way that is very interesting to listen to, and the lyrics are down-to-earth. 

Costa’s least favorite song on the album was “The Portal”, because of its lack of words. 

“It’s good for the album, but standing alone it kind of doesn’t do anything,” she said.

Costa said if the album were a color, it would be a shade of blue. Although the album’s main promotional material used red, she noted the mentions of coldness and sadness. 

The lyrics of “Birthday Interlude” especially stood out to her, hearing a friend leave a voicemail for one of the band members after their birthday. She says those lyrics specifically stuck in her brain because the friend’s words were so sweet. 

She also noted that all of the singles from the album were condensed into one part. If she had been the one making the album, she claimed, she would have spread them out so listeners would have to listen to the entire album to hear all the popular ones. 

“A lot of the really good songs, single songs that could be hits on the radio, were all in a row. Like ‘So Cold’ into ‘Golden Gate Girl’ into ‘Sideways’ into ‘Backseat’. They were all in a row, and it’s like ‘why have all of your popular possible single songs in a row?’” She said. 

For someone who enjoyed the album, Costa recommends listening to Clancy by the band twenty øne piløts. She also recommends Take a Vacation! by The Young Veins, and Vices and Virtues by Panic at the Disco. 

I would recommend a few other albums for those who enjoyed this one. Unreal Unearth, Hozier’s most recent album, has similar themes and a similar sound. Gerard Way’s album Hesitant Alien has a very different style, but there are common themes between that album and Portal.