A Fresh Record From Poke A Brain
Poke A Brain’s music works best when it refuses to settle into one recognizable shape. The Cleveland-area project has always treated genre as something flexible, and Refinement_2026 pushes that instinct in a particularly entertaining direction. Rock, soul, blues, grunge and stranger electronic touches all turn up along the way, but the record rarely feels like it is trying to prove how eclectic it can be. Instead, its personality comes from the way those ideas are allowed to collide naturally, sometimes within the same song.
That approach has been central to multi-instrumentalist Pablo A. Burbano’s work for years. Poke A Brain describes itself simply as the result of Burbano’s accumulated melodies, with rock, fusion, grunge, blues and R&B all part of the vocabulary, while 2025’s Love, Resentment & Mortality stretched across similarly broad territory. Refinement_2026 feels like another extension of that curiosity rather than an attempt to narrow things down.
“WILD IS WEST” kicks things off with plenty happening at once. It is a rocking, energetic tune filled with almost video game-like effects, but it never loses sight of being catchy and fun. I especially loved the guitar solo, which gives the track another burst of personality before it wraps up. “WITH STRINGS ATTACHED” follows, and I immediately remembered the female vocalist from the previous album. I loved her voice then and I like it just as much here. She is an incredible singer, and her presence gives the song a very different character from the opener.
“MICE” begins with an almost Steely Dan-style groove and only gets better from there. “SYNDROME” takes things in a more emotive and somber direction without becoming overly dark, while “PEARL” caught my attention immediately because its opening riff reminded me of Pearl Jam. Whether the title is actually a reference to the band or not, the resemblance was hard for me to miss.
As the album progressed, a number of songs stuck with me, especially “ESCAPE” and “LOST COWBOY.” What ultimately makes the album work is the same thing that has made Poke A Brain interesting in the past: you are rarely certain what direction the next song will take. Refinement_2026 is a really good album from a project that continues to benefit from that unpredictability. Check it out.
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