Album Notes

Get Through is an album about roadblocks, both mental and physical. And the album itself has been a roadblock—or at least a detour—for this in-demand musician. It’s Brodeur’s first solo release in eight years and his first commercial recording in five, so why the long wait? His vague explanation: “It was supposed to come out years ago, but it didn’t.”


The reasons behind the delay aren’t quite that simple, but the basic story is this: Brodeur recorded Get Through in 2004, with the help of the Suggestions (bassist Keith Hosmer and drummer Jason Schultz, who appear on seven of the album’s 12 tracks). Shortly following the recording’s completion, the band members scattered for various reasons, and financial backing for the album fell through. Left with no funding and no band, Brodeur attempted and aborted another new recording project before moving his music to the back burner.


“I pushed myself on everyone for five years straight and I needed a break,” he says, “so I joined a few of my friends’ bands on drums to keep busy.” A few bands turned into five (“A lot of my friends are good songwriters”) and soon Brodeur was performing almost every night of the week. But his own music never left his mind.


Unlike Tiger Pop, Brodeur’s dial-spinning first record, Get Through is a more modern-sounding collection of songs about, as one title sums it up, “Love and Misery.” “[Tiger Pop] was a manifesto,” says Brodeur. “It was all over the map because those were the sounds in my head at the time. . . . I was saying ‘Hey, look what I can do.’ Get Through was intended to be a band record—something that was easier to connect to, and to re-create live.”


But even in the early stages of recording it was clear this wouldn’t be a traditional “band” record. “By the end of the first four days I had already put my hands on everything in the studio. The guys basically got a free vacation while Pete (Donnelly, recording engineer) helped me build my little castle.” The resulting album follows the creative and sonic mold set out by Brodeur’s previous releases. Lyrical themes—of depression, rejection, broken love—are set to generally bright tones, creating, as one writer put it, “a juicy dichotomy that begs for repeated listens.”



Now that Brodeur’s got the bug again, he plans to make up for lost time with a forthcoming third solo album ("Little Hopes"), a "Tiger Pop" reissue, and a series of online-only EPs. But the first priority is supporting Get Through. “I can’t move on to something else before putting this out there.”



This album has been a roadblock, a detour, and ultimately a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s a back-against-the-wall record with a built-in exit strategy. As the title track goes, “If it’s all that you can do, just get through.” And in 2009 Get Through, as the title aptly implies, will finally get through to music fans.