I’ve been eating Ramen noodles for three days straight. My eyes are red and puffy (not because of anything I smoked, but because I am sick with the worst cold on earth – or so it feels). I have every right to be in a crappy mood, but I’m not in a crappy mood. The towers of tissues don’t have me down, the coughing either. Why? Because of one thing, really, BOAT’s new album, Pretend to Be Brave.

Some albums take multiple spins before I end up enjoying them, listening for hidden nuance, or teasing out the meaning of the lyrics. But with this one, I was in from the very first song, “Sharpshooters”. Chants lead singer David Crane, “On the day that I turn 33, I’ll be eating nachos, but it won’t be with my Mom, it will be with you!” This spirited line encompasses the mood of BOAT: fun, playful, childish in a way, yet also adult.

In a city full of brooders, over-thinkers, shoe-gazers, BOAT proffers the idea of enjoyment, of celebration. They throw confetti on their audiences at live shows, and invite drunk sing-alongers to chant with them on stage. Inherent in the music on Pretend to Be Brave is a sense of darkness, but only because BOAT avoids the shadows so meticulously. Hell, the cover of the album is a cartoonish, grinning golden retriever!

This new 12-song release by the Seattle band proves fun music doesn’t have to be dumbed-down. The musicianship of the four-piece is top-notch, yet there is no sense of arrogance, only welcoming. The lyrics are thoughtful but not heavy. It can be dangerous to compare sounds, but for the sake of it, think The Presidents of the United States of America meets Lou Reed. And BOAT has that quality that every group aspires for, that Where have I heard this thing before sensibility.

The joy the band exudes is not without moral, however. The title track wonders of its listener – as if to say, seriously?? when considering the idea of sadness – “Pretend to be brave! Afraid of meeting your grave? – Come on!” The lyric is accompanied by a Prince-like guitar solo pushing into the reaches of the sky. This is followed by the song, “With the Sea at My Back”, which keeps the listener moving forward. The line “With the sea at my back, I go!” is repeated over and over so warmly that you want to be there with them, dropping bottles filled with love notes into the ocean. “Someone come save me, I want to survive, I want to survive!” sings Crane among big bass eighth notes, a picked 12-string guitar and a repetitious kick drum.

If I were to offer one criticism, it’s that the tracks are all so short (all but two are under three minutes) that sometimes they can blend into one another. Pop hits often require short song duration, but the band hasn’t left a lot of room to breathe on any of the dozen tracks, so the pop sensibility might blur together to the lazy listener. This, however, is a small qualm compared to the vast enjoyment the record offers – even to the dreadfully sick ones.

–Jake Uitti, The Monarch Review