Pernice Brothers

The sweetly melodic sounds made by the Pernice Brothers reflect their principal songwriter Joe Pernice's love of lush orchestral pop. There were almost no traces of country leftover from Pernice's former project Scud Mountain Boys on the Pernice Brothers' 1998 debut album, Overcome by Happiness. Instead, influences like the Left Banke and Todd Rundgren seemed to be the main inspiration. The Pernice Brothers dug deeper into pop on their second LP, 2001's excellent The World Won't End, and through the end of the decade, they released a series of consistently strong albums like 2006's Live a Little and 2010's Goodbye, Killer. After nearly ten years spent pursuing other projects, the Pernice Brothers made an impressive return with 2019's Spread the Feeling, and 2024's Who Will You Believe was an especially personal and emotionally literate effort, informed by the unexpected deaths of friends and family.