Louisiana, USA-based rock artist Brody Bradberry is only seventeen years old yet he’s already on his second full-length album.
By Graeme Smith
Following his 2024 release Ivy, Memories of The Blood Tide has landed the artist on my radar.
Thematically, the album explores hard-hitting concepts like generational trauma, betrayal, grief, and the longing for meaning and clarity, working through them to try and find understanding with a gritty determination. As a result, the lyrics, delivered with gruff heart, really stick with you. They reward a careful listener.
The lyrics are tied together with melodies that feel classic yet with a touch of the Avant Garde. Bradberry is not afraid to experiment on his album, and it’s all the better for it. There’s a DIY auteur approach that means it stands out from the crowd.
An atmospheric intro draws us in, leading us to the emotive pop rock groove of Ruins. It’s reminiscent of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Just Like Honey, giving us a familiar yet unfamiliar early anchor in the fourteen-track collection.
The mellow and melancholic If You Don’t Come Back packs emotional punch before The Flood gets psychedelic. From there we undulate between the gentle and devastating to the edgy and defiant. Genre-wise it blends grunge and emo rock seamlessly, fitting both descriptions and neither at the same time.
Anybody/ Save Me is a raucous highlight, throwing its full weight behind some big riffs from the off before settling into a raw, stripped-back verse. In many ways it typifies the album. Another highlight is My Final Poem Before the 25th (Wash Away) which closes the record with an acoustic hypnosis and plenty of cavernous reverb. It’s positively ghostly.
It’s easy to dismiss a young, emotional artist but I think there’s a depth and astuteness to what Bradberry is doing that means he deserves your attention. There can be wisdom in youth, and as life grinds us down, we lose a lot of our emotional purity. If you can’t remember the drama of being young, then Memories of The Blood Tide serves as a timely reminder.
Brody Bradberry is an artist going against a trend-hopping tide and I’m here for him. I look forward to hearing what he does next. If you want to keep up to date with all he is doing, you can follow him on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Memories of The Blood Tide is out on 16 February 2026.
