With Ethereal Tones and Dreamlike Textures “Don’t Worry” by Brother. Explores the Decision to Be Cool Versus Doing Right

Brother_DontWorry_cover2_crop — Brother. “Don’t Worry” cover (cropped)

The falsetto vocals, shimmering tones and sweeping sense of space in “Don’t Worry” by Brother. is apt for a song about a teenager deciding between, according to the group’s material on the single, “doing what is cool and doing what is right.” It captures the state of mind in which you have to make a choice to pursue fleeting social capital that won’t matter later in life or to choose character and integrity, which does serve at least your conscience for far longer. The bright drone phasing through the beginning of the song, the spare bass line, the lo-fi treatment on vocals gives the structure and texture of the song an amorphous quality reflective of not having settled on the trajectory of one’s life. One guitar shimmers, the other strikes echoing accents—one guitar employs a fuzzy warmth at times while the other paints ethereal, shimmering figures. Halfway through the song the dynamic changes a bit with the guitars hitting a bright riff like an extended drone as the vocals get hit with a rapid reduction of delay time to give it a disorienting, warping sound. The competing messages to one’s conscience are embodied in lines about “lying through our teeth” and the more soothing but dark, “You say don’t worry, it’ll be alright, you say, don’t worry I am on your side.” While entrancing and sitting gently in your ear the song also speaks to that critical crossroads in our lives when we decide whether to be a good person or merely an okay person. Listen to “Don’t Worry” on Spotify and follow Brother., from Provo, Utah, at the links below.