There’s something strangely satisfying about the name Poke A Brain, and Refinement_2026 carries some of that same oddball charm. I’m not entirely sure what the album title is supposed to mean, but I like it anyway. The Cleveland-area project is led by a composer and multi-instrumentalist with more than 25 years of writing and performing behind him, and that experience helps explain why the record moves so comfortably between grunge, classic rock, blues, soul, jazz, and heavier music.
The songs themselves are what ultimately sold me. Refinement_2026 has the rough edges of a garage-rock record, as though much of it could have been captured in a small studio with musicians playing together rather than assembling everything piece by piece. There’s a looseness to the performances that I prefer to the hyper-polished sound of a lot of contemporary pop. Even when the arrangements move in unexpected directions, they still feel rooted in people actually playing instruments.
The contrast between the vocalists is another strength. Male and female voices appear throughout the record, giving the songs distinctly different personalities and preventing its 13-track run from becoming too uniform. The guitar work is equally important, from the heavier riffs to solos that are given enough room to actually develop. “WILD WEST,” for example, eventually breaks into a rousing solo, while “PEARL” leans into a heavier classic-rock sound.
At 13 songs, Refinement_2026 could probably stand to lose a little weight. Still, there are enough bangers scattered across the runtime that I never lost interest for long. Poke A Brain sounds less concerned with perfection than with capturing the personality of the musicians playing these songs, and I’ll take that trade any day.